In Memoriam: Olly W. Wilson, 1937-2018
After teaching at Florida A&M University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Dr. Wilson joined the music department faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 1970. He retired from teaching in 2002.
In Memoriam: Jeffrey B. Ferguson, 1964-2018
Jeffrey B. Ferguson was the Karen and Brian Conway '80 Presidential Teaching Professor of Black Studies at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He was a prominent scholar of the Harlem Renaissance.
In Memoriam: David G. Carter, 1942-2018
David G. Carter was the former chancellor of the Connecticut State University System and former president of Eastern Connecticut State University. He was the first African American to serve as president of a four-year institution of higher education in Connecticut.
In Memorian: Arthur J, McAfee Jr., 1929-2018
Arthur J. McAfee Jr. served as director of athletics at Morehouse College in Atlanta. McAfee was also the head basketball coach at the college from 1965 to 2000. During this period, he won 464 college basketball games.
In Memoriam: Stephen W. Jefferson, 1950-2018
Dr. Jefferson taught at the University of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2013 and directed the undergraduate sport management program from 1999 to 2011.
In Memoriam: Sarah Delores Cousin Banks, 1940-2018
After earning a master's degree, Sarah Banks taught mathematics at Rutgers University-Camden. Completing a doctorate at Rutgers in 1984, she then joined the staff at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she served in a number of roles including associate dean of the Graduate School.
In Memoriam: Virginia Caples, 1946-2018
Dr. Caples began her academic career at her alma mater, Alcorn State University. She then joined the faculty at Alabama A&M University, and served there in many capacities, including provost, for the next 40 years. On two occasions, Dr. Caples served as interim president of Alabama A&M.
In Memoriam: Lerone Bennett Jr., 1928-2018
Lerone Bennett, Jr. was a highly respected historian of the African American experience. He served as an editor at Ebony magazine for more than a half century and taught at Northwestern University.
In Memoriam: Grace Victoria Edmondson Harris, 1933-2018
Dr. Harris was the first African American women to serve as a chief academic officer at a four-year public university in Virginia. She served on the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond for 48 years.
In Memoriam: Saul T. Wilson Jr., 1928-2018
Saul T. Wilson, Jr. was a member of the first pre-veterinary medicine class at what was then the Tuskegee Institute. He was a member of the second class of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Tuskegee and later served on the faculty.
In Memoriam: Leon Ndugu Chancler, 1952-2018
Leon Chancler was an accomplished drummer who worked with some of the biggest names in the music business and taught for 23 years in the jazz and popular music programs at Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
In Memoriam: Cheryl Lynn Allen
Dr. Allen joined the faculty of Morehouse College as an instructor in 1988 and rose to the rank of full professor. On two occasions she was named interim dean of the Business and Economics Division at Morehouse College, the first woman to serve as a dean in the division.
In Memoriam: Julius Bernard Lester, 1939-2018
Julius Lester, author, civil rights activist, photographer, musician, and educator who taught at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for more than 30 years, has died at the age of 78.
In Memoriam: Robert Harris Jr., 1927-2018
Dr. Harris was originally denied admission to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Education because of his race. He later was the first African American student to enroll at the school.
In Memoriam: Ralph W. Turner, 1937-2017
Ralph W. Turner was dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida A&M from 2008 to 2012. He served on the chemistry department faculty at the university for a half century.
In Memoriam: Martha Hemphill Veasey, 1938-2018
Martha Veasey was a long-time administrator at Canisius College in New York. After a 21-year career in nursing, she joined the staff at the college as a counselor. She later served as director of community relations and director of disability support services.
In Memoriam: Joseph Benjamin Johnson, 1934-2018
Dr. Johnson served as president of Grambling State University in Louisiana from 1977 to 1991. He was then president of Talladega College in Alabama until his retirement in 1998.
In Memoriam: LeRoy Frasier, 1937-2017
In 1955, LeRoy Frasier was one of the first three African American students to enroll as undergraduates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In Memoriam: Joseph T. McMillan Jr., 1944-2017
Before becoming the fourth president of what is now Huston-Tillotson University in 1988, Dr. McMillan served for 18 years as director of the United Church of Christ's ministry in higher education. He served for 12 years as president of the historically Black college in Austin, Texas, before retiring in 2000.
In Memoriam: Getahn Ward, 1972-2017
A native of Liberia in western Africa, Ward came to the United States in 1991 and became a U.S. citizen in 2014. He began work as a reporter at The Tennessean in 1998. He also taught journalism classes at his alma mater, Tennessee State University.
In Memoriam: William Wesley Harmon, 1941-2017
From 2005 to 2016, Dr. Harmon served as president of Central College of Houston Community College, which today enrolls about 18,000 students.
In Memoriam: Calestous Juma, 1953-2017
Calestous Juma was a professor of the practice of international development at the Kennedy School of Harvard University. A native of Kenya, Dr. Juma earned a Ph.D. in science and technology studies at the University of Sussex in England.
In Memoriam: Laron J. Clark Jr., 1937-2017
During Laron Clark's tenure as director of development at Hampton University in Virginia, the university's endowment grew from $29 million to more than $260 million.
In Memoriam: William M. Pender Sr., 1922-2017
Dr. Pender was hired in 1965 as director of guidance and teacher training at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He was a professor of education and later served as vice chancellor for academic affairs.
In Memoriam: Marilou Allen, 1933-2017
Allen joined the staff at Haverford College in 1981 as director of the community outreach office. The initial appointment was for 18 months. But she remained head of the office until her retirement in 2015. She also founded and was director of the college's Women's Center for 33 years.
In Memorian: Rudy L. Horne
Dr. Horne was an associate professor of mathematics at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He received a credit as the mathematical consultant for the Academy Award nominated film Hidden Figures.
In Memoriam: Todd Jason McCallum
Todd McCallum was an associate professor in the department of psychological sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He joined the faculty there in 2002 and was promoted to associate professor in 2007.
In Memoriam: Jospeh Muriuki Wahome, 1962-2017
A native of Kenya, Joseph M. Wahome was a former associate professor of biology and chair of the department of natural sciences and environmental health at Mississippi Valley State University.
In Memoriam: Norman White, 1953-2017
Dr. White was an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice in the College for Public Health and Social Justice at Saint Louis University.
In Memoriam: Ernest Adolphus Finney Jr., 1931-2017
Ernest A. Finney Jr. was the first African American to serve as Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court and the former interim president of South Carolina State University.
In Memoriam: Perry Eugene Wallace Jr., 1948-2017
Perry Wallace, who served on the faculty of several law schools, was the first African American to play varsity basketball in the Southeastern Conference.
In Memoriam: Joseph L. White, 1932-2017
Often referred to as the Father of Black Psychology, Joseph L. White taught at the University of California, Irvine from 1969 to 1994.
In Memoriam: Jacqueline A. DeWalt, 1952-2017
Jacqueline DeWalt was the former long-time director of the Pre-college Enrichment Opportunity Program for Learning Education (PEOPLE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In Memoriam: Mary Louise McKinney Edmonds, 1932-2017
Mary Edmonds was a faculty member at Cleveland State University, a dean at Bowling Green State University, and vice provost for student affairs at Stanford University.
In Memoriam: Jacqueline Bolden Beck, 1931-2017
Dr. Beck started her career at Florida A&M University in 1958 as an instructor of nursing. She retired in 2000 after serving as the leader of the School of Allied Health Sciences at the university for 18 years.
In Memoriam: Gloria Johnson-Powell, 1936-2017
Dr. Gloria Johnson-Powell considered dropping out of Meharry Medical College to devote more time to civil rights activism. However, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. urged her to complete her studies. She did.
