Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Phyllis JENKINS
Phyllis J. Morrison Biddle, 89, athletic director
By Sally A. Downey
Inquirer Staff Writer
Phyllis Jenkins Morrison Biddle, 89, a sportswoman and former athletic director at Germantown Academy, died of heart failure Wednesday, Oct. 20, at Foulkeways at Gwynedd, a Quaker retirement community.
Mrs. Biddle graduated from Germantown Friends School, where she was captain of the field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse teams her senior year. She earned a bachelor's degree from Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., where she played lacrosse and field hockey and captained the basketball team. As a young woman, she also played competitive squash at Germantown Cricket Club and was a member of the U.S. lacrosse team.
A month before graduating from college in 1943, she married Leonard Morrison. The couple had met at Pocono Lake Preserve, where their families had summer homes.
During World War II, while he served in the Army Air Force in Europe, she taught physical education at Wells.
After the war, they raised a family in Flourtown and Fort Washington. While their children were growing up, Mrs. Biddle chaired fund-raising events and served on committees at Chestnut Hill Hospital and at Chestnut Hill, Springside, and Germantown Academies.
In 1968, Mrs. Biddle became girls' tennis coach at Germantown Academy. After becoming girls' athletic director in 1970, she helped establish the Girls Inter-Academic League. She retired from Germantown Academy in the early 1980s and then coached boys' junior tennis at Chestnut Hill Academy for two years.
In 1985, nine years after her first husband died, she married Charles M. Biddle III. The couple lived in Chestnut Hill and spent summers in the Poconos and winters in Florida.
Mrs. Biddle had traced her ancestry to Edward and Eleanor Foulke, who settled in Gwynedd in 1698 and for whom Foulkeways at Gwynedd is named. Fittingly, she and her husband moved there in 1990. In 1998, Mrs. Biddle participated in the 300th-anniversary Foulke family reunion at Foulkeways.
Mrs. Biddle served on the board of Foulkeways for nine years. She was involved in the planning of Foulkeways' assisted-living facility and the development of its indoor pool and athletic complex. Until a few months ago, she participated in water aerobics and exercise classes at the complex, son David Morrison said. She also organized competitions at Foulkeways and other retirement communities for Wimbledon croquet. She played golf and enjoyed trout fishing into her 80s, her son said.
In 2005, Foulkeways opened Jenkins Parlor, a multipurpose social hall. Mrs. Biddle and her children donated a collection of family antiques, heirlooms, and artwork and provided money for the fireplace in the social room, which was named for their ancestor Charles Foulke Jenkins, an early-19th-century businessman who was a longtime postmaster in Gwynedd.
In addition to her son David, Mrs. Biddle is survived by another son, John Morrison; a daughter, Joan Morrison; stepsons C. Miller, David, and Richard Biddle; a sister; five grandchildren; and one great-grandson. Charles Biddle died in 2006.
A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 24, at Gwynedd Friends Meeting House, 1101 Dekalb Pike, Lower Gwynedd.
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