In Memoriam: Wallace T. Dooley Jr. 1947-2015
Wallace Dooley served as an athletics administrator at several historically Black colleges and universities. In 2001, Dooley was appointed the media relations director and assistant commissioner for the Southwest Athletic Conference.
In Memoriam: Sybil C. Mobley, 1925-2015
Dr. Mobley was named chair of the business department at Florida A&M University in 1970 and in 1974 became the founding dean of the School of Business and Industry. She served in that role until her retirement in 2003.
In Memoriam: Blanche Macdonald Francis, 1925-2015
A former instructor of modern dance at two universities, Blanche Macdonald Francis was the "First Lady" of Xavier University in New Orleans for more than 45 years.
In Memoriam: Bill T. Ridgeway, 1926-2015
When Dr. Ridgeway joined the faculty at Eastern Illinois University in 1966, he was one of very few African Americans on the faculty. He taught at Eastern Illinois University for many years. retiring in the 1980s.
In Memoriam: William Alexander Darity Sr., 1924-2015
Williams Alexander Darity Sr. was professor emeritus of public health and the founding dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
In Memoriam: Cynthia V. Clemons
Cynthia V. Clemons was a professor and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship Studies at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She had also served as dean of the Division of Social Sciences and Education at the college.
In Memoriam: Russell G. Hamilton, 1934-2016
Dr. Hamilton, professor emeritus of Spanish and Portuguese at Vanderbilt University, joined the faculty at the university in 1984 as dean for graduate studies and research. He was the first African American to serve as a dean of a Vanderbilt school or college.
In Memoriam: Crawford Joseph Mims, 1922-2016
During his long career in higher education, Dr. Sims taught at Rust College, Shorter College, and Philander Smith College. He was provost at Philander Smith College and on three occasions served as interim president of the historically Black educational institution.
In Memoriam: David Nganga Mburu, 1965-2016
A native of Kenya, Dr. Mburu taught courses in the language of Kiswahili and popular culture in East Africa at the University of Kansas. Earlier, he taught at California State University, Sacramento.
In Memoriam: Jewell Plummer Cobb, 1924-2017
In 1981, Professor Cobb was appointed president of California State University, Fullerton. She was the first African American women to lead a major university west of the Mississippi River.
In Memoriam: Courtney Salters Henderson, 1975-2017
A native of Tupelo, Mississippi, Salters Henderson joined the staff at Vanderbilt University in 1998 as an admissions counselor. In 2005 she was appointed director of student organizations and served in that post at the time of her death.
In Memoriam: Julia Blanche Anderson, 1951-2017
Julia B. Anderson was the founding director of the Institute for Racial and Ethnic Health Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Later, she was a special assistant to the deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
In Memoriam: Charles Lyons Jr., 1926-2017
Dr. Lyons became chancellor of Fayetteville State University in 1969. He served in that role for 18 years before resigning in 1987.
In Memoriam: Norris Allen Edney, 1936-2017
Dr. Edney was a long-time faculty member who served as both acting president and interim president of Alcorn State University in Mississippi.
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: 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: 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 Memoriam: Edgar Jackson Kenton III, 1940-2018
Dr. Kenton served as a professor of neurology at Temple University in Philadelphia, a clinical professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, and as director of the Stroke Prevention Intervention Research Program at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.
In Memoriam: John Kenneth Lee, 1923-2018
J. Kenneth Lee, was a prominent civil rights attorney who was one of five African American students who in 1951 enrolled at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Earlier he had taught at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro.
In Memoriam: Gladys Hope Franklin White, 1916-2018
After a long career in education, Dr. White retired from North Carolina A&T State University and founded Project CARE, an SAT/ACT Prep project in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
In Memoriam: Lamin Sanneh, 1942-2019
Lamin Sanneh, the D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity at Yale Divinity School, passed away on January 6 from a stroke.
In Memoriam: Lorraine Elizabeth Green Branham, 1952-2019
A long-time journalist Lorraine Branham became dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in New York in 2008.
In Memoriam: Albert L. Walker, 1945-2019
Dr. Walker was appointed president of Harris-Stowe State University in August 2011 and served in that role until his retirement in 2013. Earlier in his career, he served as president of Bluefield College in West Virginia.
In Memoriam: Olivia Cousins, 1948-2019
Olivia Cousins was a feminist scholar, African American historian, and long-time faculty member at the Borough of Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York. She served on the faculty there for more than 30 years.
In Memoriam: Wright Lassiter Jr., 1934-2019
Dr. Lassiter was appointed chancellor of Dallas County Community College District in 2007. He was the first African American to hold the position. Earlier in his career, Dr. Lassiter served for 20 years as president of El Centro College in Dallas.
In Memoriam: Rita Roberts Jones, 1934-2019
Rita Jones began her career at Oakwood University in 1972 as dean of freshman women.
In Memoriam: Roderick Earl Richardson, 1955-2019
In 1986, Roderick Richardson joined the staff at the University of Maryland College Park as a budget analyst. He retired from his position in 2015 due to ailing health.
In Memoriam: Mary T. Christian, 1924-2019
Dr. Christian served as chair of the department of elementary education and was dean of the School of Education at Hampton University in Virginia. She also was elected to nine consecutive terms as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.
In Memoriam: Tejumola Olaniyan, 1959-2019
A native of Nigeria, Dr. Olaniyan was the Louise Durham Mead Professor of English and the Wole Soyinka Professor of the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
In Memoriam: Paul Elritt Meacham, 1936-2019
Dr. Meacham was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in education at the University of Texas and the first African American to serve as president of a college or university in the state of Nevada.
In Memoriam: Joseph Echols Lowery, 1921-2020
Joseph Lowery, often referred to as the "Dean of the Civil Rights Movement," held a doctorate from the Chicago Ecumenical Institute. In 2002, the Joseph E. Lowery Institute for Justice & Human Rights was founded at Clark Atlanta University.
In Memoriam: Arthur Sanderson Paul, 1950-2020
Beginning in 1981, Dr. Paul served at Howard University as a faculty member in the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Computer Science. He remained on the faculty for 38 years. Professor Paul also served as interim associate provost for research at Howard.
In Memoriam: Elijah Walter Miles, 1934-2020
Dr. Miles joined the faculty at San Diego State University in 1966. At that time he was the only African American on the university's faculty. This earned him the nickname "The Godfather of Black Faculty."
In Memoriam: Cordy Tindell Vivian, 1924-2020
Cordy T. Vivian was former chaplain and dean of the Divinity School at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a key member of Martin Luther King Jr.'s inner circle during the civil rights movement.
In Memoriam: Marie Marcelle Buteau Racine, 1934-2020
In 1969, Dr. Racine, a native of Haiti, joined the foreign languages faculty at Federal City College, which later became part of the University of the District of Columbia. She taught there until her retirement n 2013.
In Memoriam: Courtney W. Stevenson 1914-2020
Courtney Stevenson, a long-time faculty member at Delaware State University died on August 5 at Bayhealth Medical Center in Dover, DE.
