JBHE: Latest News for 10/15/09

In Memoriam

Lisle C. Carter Jr. (1926-2009)

Lisle C. Carter Jr., former chancellor of the Atlanta University Center and the first president of the University of the District of Columbia, has died from complications of pneumonia at a hospital in northern Virginia. He was 83 years old.

Carter was born in Manhattan to immigrants from the Caribbean island of Barbados. His father was a dentist. Carter attended Cazenovia College for two years and then transferred to Dartmouth College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1945. After serving in the Army, he earned a law degree at St. John’s University.

After heading the Urban League offices in New York and Washington, in 1961 Carter was named to an administrative post in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in the Kennedy administration. President Johnson named him assistant secretary of HEW.

In 1974 Carter was appointed chancellor of the Atlanta University Center. Three years later he accepted the position as the first president of the University of the District of Columbia.

Robert Eric Hayes Sr. (1920-2009)

In 1971 Robert Eric Hayes Sr. was serving as the assistant to the bishop of the United Methodist Church. The bishop sent him to Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, to make preparations to close the institution, which was $6 million in debt and had lost its accreditation.

Instead, Hayes, a graduate of Wiley College and the Gammon Theological Seminary, launched a successful effort to raise funds to restore the college’s academic credibility.

Hayes died last month in Houston at the age of 89.

Grady Deese (1947-2009)

Grady Deese, director of admissions at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina, died suddenly during a recruiting event in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. He was 62 years old.

Deese was a graduate of Livingstone College and held a master’s degree from Columbia University. Before coming to Elizabeth City State University, he held similar admissions positions at Livingstone College and Barber-Scotia College.