Cornelius Gillespie was born on September 12, 1851, in County Donegal, located in what was then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

[11] He was the college's first president to have been an alumnus of the school,[2] and served until September 1907, when he was replaced by Denis T. O'Sullivan.

O'Sullivan died soon thereafter, and Gillespie again became the tenth president on June 16, 1908, serving until his health deteriorated.

In his two terms, Gillespie separated St. Joseph's Preparatory School from the rest of the university in 1904, and the first varsity athletics programs were begun in 1909.

[1] He was distantly related to Saint Joseph's University's future president, Kevin Gillespie.