In Memoriam

John Alfred Sanders (1935-2011)

John A. Sanders, former chair of the department of mathematics at Chicago State University, died last month at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, from complications of an autoimmune disease. He was 75 years old.

Sanders was raised in Decatur, Alabama, the son of a Negro League baseball player. A standout athlete in high school, Sanders washed dishes in a restaurant to put himself through Alabama State University. He went on to earn a master’s degree at Atlanta University and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Iowa. He taught briefly at the University of Illinois at Chicago before joining the faculty at Chicago State University in 1974. He taught at Chicago State for 25 years.

Rubens John Pamies (1958-2011)

Rubens J. Pamies, vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean for graduate studies at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, died late last month after suffering a heart attack at his sister’s home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was 52 years old.

The son of Haitian immigrants, Dr. Pamies grew up in Queens, New York. He earned his bachelor’s degree at St. John’s University and his medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Prior to teaching at the University of Nebraska, Pamies was on the faculty of the medical schools at the University of South Florida, Case Western Reserve University, Vanderbilt University, and Meharry Medical College.

Copyright © 2011. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.