In Memoriam

Ruth Brett Quarles (1914-2007)

Ruth Brett Quarles, whose career as an administrator in higher education spanned more than four decades, died from complications after hip surgery last month at a hospital in Latham, Maryland. She was 92 years old.

A native of Murfreesboro, North Carolina, Quarles was valedictorian of her high school class. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. She held a master’s degree from the Hartford Seminary Foundation and an educational doctorate from Columbia University.

She began her academic career at Spelman College in Atlanta in 1936. Over the next two decades she held various administrative and faculty positions at Dillard University, Bennett College, Tuskegee University, and Fisk University. In 1956 she was named director of student personnel and counseling services at Morgan State University in Baltimore. She remained in that position for nearly a quarter-century.

Quarles was the widow of renowned African-American historian Benjamin Quarles, who died in 1996.

Joseph Moore (1932-2007)

Joseph Moore, former head of the department of technology at Norfolk State University, died late last month. He was 74 years old.

A native of Wakefield, Virginia, Moore was an alumnus of Norfolk State, where he was a member of the football team. He married a Norfolk State student and the couple moved to New York where his wife earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing. The pair returned to Virginia when Moore’s wife landed a teaching job at Norfolk State. Joseph Moore then studied for a master’s degree at Virginia State and a Ph.D. at Virginia Tech. He, too, secured a teaching position at Norfolk State University. He retired in 1996.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.