In Memoriam: Mulgrew Miller, 1955-2013
A native of Greenwood, Mississippi, Miller studied at the University of Memphis and began his professional career with the Duke Ellington orchestra. He was appointed director of the jazz studies program at William Paterson University in 2005.
In Memoriam: Stephen A. Martin Sr., 1946-2013
He is the former vice president for finance and chief business officer at Tuskegee University in Alabama. He taught at Dillard University in New Orleans and served in the administration at Delgado Community College in New Orleans and Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth.
In Memoriam: Laura Marie Leary Elliott, 1945-2013
Elliott enrolled at East Carolina University in 1962 at the age of 17 after being the valedictorian at Pitt County Training School in Calico, North Carolina. She was the first African American graduate of the university.
In Memoriam: Richard Iton, 1961-2013
A professor of African American studies and political science at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, Dr. Iton died late last month after a 11-year battle with leukemia. He was 51 years old.
In Memoriam: Arvarh E. Strickland, 1930-2013
After teaching at Chicago State College, in 1969 he became a tenured professor of history at the University of Missouri, the first African American tenured professor in the university's history.
In Memoriam: Ruth Alice Lucas, 1920-2013
She was an educator who was the first African American woman to be promoted to the rank of colonel in the United States Air Force. In 1994 she retired from the University of the District of Columbia after serving as assistant to the dean of the College of Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Technology.
In Memoriam: Antronette Yancey, 1957-2013
A professor of public health at the University of California at Los Angeles, she was a leading advocate of brief periods of exercise throughout the day for schoolchildren and office workers. As an undergraduate, she played varsity basketball at Northwestern University.
In Memoriam: Huel Davis Perkins, 1924-2013
Dr. Perkins was professor emeritus of the humanities at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He served as assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs, executive assistant to the chancellor, and special assistant to the chancellor at the university.
In Memoriam: Ora-Mae Williams Cheaney, 1912-2013
She was an alumna of Kentucky State University and served on the faculty there for nearly two decades teaching courses on food and nutrition.
In Memoriam: H. Fred C. Simons, 1925-2013
Dr. Simons served in a number of administrative posts at the University of Connecticut, including vice president for student affairs. The African American Cultural Center on the University of Connecticut campus is named in his honor.
In Memoriam: James Carey Letton, 1933-2013
James C. Letton, an organic chemist with a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, held a patent for the fat substitute Olestra and was chair of the department of chemistry at historically Black Kentucky State University.
In Memoriam: Margaret Ann Wheatley, 1945-2013
She was an assistant professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and the former president of the Ohio Nurses Association.
In Memoriam: James Madison Nabrit III, 1932-2013
He was a prominent civil right attorney who argued several important cases involving education before the U.S. Supreme Court. His father, James M. Nabrit Jr. was president of Howard University in the 1960s.
In Memoriam: George R. Greene, 1930-2013
Early in his legal career, Greene represented students from Shaw University and Saint Augustine's College who were arrested in 1960 for their participation in Raleigh's lunchcounter sit-ins.
In Memoriam: Chinua Achebe, 1930-2013
Since 2009, the noted Nigerian author and educator, has served as the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and professor of Africana studies at Brown University.
In Memoriam: Wilbert Frazier Jordan Jr., 1950-2013
An environmental attorney, he was the first African American to receive an athletic scholarship at the University of Southern Mississippi.
In Memoriam: Jane Cooke Wright, 1919-2013
When she was named professor of surgery and chair of the cancer chemotherapy department at New York Medical College in 1967, she was the highest-ranked African American woman at any predominantly white U.S. medical school.
In Memoriam: David Lloyd Mathews, 1949-2013
He was president of the Auburn Hills campus of Oakland Community College in Michigan and had served in that post for less than two months before his death.
In Memoriam: Randolph Wilson Bromery, 1926-2013
Dr. Bromery was a former professor of geology and chancellor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He also served as president of Westfield State College, Roxbury Community College, and Springfield College.
In Memoriam: Verla Marie Williams Vaughn, 1948-2013
Dr. Vaughan joined the nursing faculty at Tennessee State University in 1977. In addition to her role on the faculty for 36 years, Dr. Vaughan served as chair of the Christine Sharpe Lectureship, which provided nursing students access to some of the nation's top leaders in nursing.
In Memoriam: Donald Toussaint L’Ouverture Byrd II, 1932-2003
Throughout an illustrious career as a jazz recording artist and performer, he taught at North Carolina Central University, Delaware State University, Rutgers University, Hampton University, New York University, Cornell University, Oberlin College and Howard University.
In Memoriam: Gloria Richardson Smith, 1934-2013
She was the former dean of the nursing schools at the University of Oklahoma and Wayne State University and was the first nurse to be named director of the Michigan Department of Public Health.
In Memoriam: James Alexander Hood, 1942-2013
Hood was one of two Black students who successfully integrated the University of Alabama in 1963. He spent only two months on a hostile campus before transferring to Wayne State University. Many years later, he returned to the University of Alabama to earn a doctoral degree.
In Memoriam: Brooklyn T. McMillon, 1915-2013
Over a career of 65 years of service to North Carolina Central University, he was registrar, professor, chair of the health education department, and volunteer university archivist.
In Memorian: Jan Rynveld Carew, 1920-2012
Born in what was then British Guyana, he was a prolific writer and was professor emeritus of African American studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
In Memoriam: Arthur J. Bond, 1939-2012
Educated at Purdue University, he was the former dean of engineering and technology at Alabama A&M University. As a graduate student he was an adviser to students who formed what is now the National Society of Black Engineers.
In Memoriam: J. Blaine Hudson, 1949-2013
Dr. Hudson had been on medical leave since August and in December had resigned as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville. He had planned to return to the faculty in 2014.
In Memoriam: Henry Blackwell, 1936-2012
He taught at Boston College for 32 and was the first African American to ever serve as a faculty member in the college's English Department.
In Memoriam: Gloria Davy, 1931-2012
She was the first African American to perform as Aida at the Metropolitan Opera and served on the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington from 1984 to 1997.
In Memoriam: Vernice Doris Ferguson, 1928-2012
After a long and distinguished career in government service, she was named a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and held the Fagin Family Chair in Diversity.
In Memoriam: Mozella Smith Peterson Galloway, 1951-2012
She was the co-founder and president of the National Black Herstory Task Force, a nonprofit cultural and educational organization dedicated to celebrate and chronicle the lives of women of African descent.
In Memoriam: Cedric Sydney Rodney, 1924-2012
Until his recent retirement, he was the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religion and Ethics at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina.
In Memoriam: Christopher C. Mercer, 1924-2012
He was one of the six Black students who racially integrated the School of Law at the University of Arkansas. He was an adviser to the Little Rock Nine, the students who racially integrated Central High School in 1957.
In Memoriam: Lawrence Guyout, 1939-2012
He was a civil rights activist who inspired generations of students to become involved in politics. He was a graduate of Tougaloo College and the law school at Rutgers University.
In Memoriam: Harrison DeWayne Whittington, 1931-2012
A founding member of the board of visitors at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, he also served as a visiting lecturer, Director of Field Experience, and an adviser to the university's Upward Bound program.
In Memoriam: James Russell Dumpson, 1909-2012
He was the former dean of the Graduate School of Social Science at Fordham University and was the oldest living alumnus of Cheyney University in Pennsylvania.
