In Memoriam

Joseph Gayles Jr. (1937-2008)

Joseph Gayles Jr., a chemistry professor at Morehouse College who in the early 1970s helped write the grant proposal to establish the Morehouse School of Medicine, died from heart failure at his home in Atlanta. He was 71 years old.

Professor Gayles was a native of Birmingham, Alabama. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Dillard University in New Orleans. He held a Ph.D. in chemistry from Brown University.

From 1977 to 1983, Dr. Gayles served as president of Talladega College in Alabama. From 1983 to his retirement in 1996, Gayles was vice president of institutional advancement.

Elizabeth W. Stone (1918-2008)

Elizabeth W. Stone, former professor of English at Howard University and former director of communication skills at the Howard University School of Law, has died from congestive heart failure at a hospital in Boca Raton, Florida. She was 90 years old.

Dr. Stone was a native of Washington, D.C., and attended the racially segregated Dunbar High School. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in American literature from Howard University. She earned a second master’s degree in drama from the Catholic University of America. In 1956 Stone was awarded a Ph.D. in speech and drama from Columbia University.

After teaching English at Howard for nearly a decade, Professor Stone worked for the federal government for 20 years. She then returned to the academic world as an administrator at Howard University School of Law.

In 1960 Dr. Stone gave a speech seconding the nomination of John F. Kennedy at the Democratic National Convention. In 1977 she founded the advocacy organization Black Women’s Agenda.

Harold Barefoot Sanders Jr. (1925-2008)

Retired federal judge Harold Barefoot Sanders Jr. died at his home in Dallas of complications from an infection. He was 83 years old.

Before his appointment to the federal bench by President Carter in 1979, Sanders served in the Texas legislature and as U.S. deputy attorney general in the Johnson administration. In that capacity, he was the administration’s point man in winning support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, legislation that enabled millions of African Americans to vote for the first time.

Sanders was a graduate of the University of Texas where he was elected student body president. He also earned his law degree at the University of Texas.

Sanders rode in the presidential motorcade in Dallas when President Kennedy was shot. He retired from the federal bench in 2006.