Honors and Awards

• William R. Harvey, president of Hampton University, was inducted into the Hampton Roads Business Hall of Fame at a black-tie gala in Norfolk. In addition to his academic duties, President Harvey owns a Pepsi Bottling plant.

• Kyla Marshell, who just completed her junior year at Spelman College, won the 2008 Edith A. Hambie Award from the Academy of American Poets. Marshell, from Scarborough, Maine, is the editor of Spelman’s literary journal, Focus Magazine.

• George W. Purnell, a recent graduate of Howard University, received the Reginald F. Lewis Scholar Prize awarded to the undergraduate student who made the most progress between his or her sophomore year and graduation. The award comes with a $10,000 cash prize.

Purnell, a native of Yeadon, Pennsylvania, has taken a job as a teacher and chess coach in Phoenix.

• Drexel University in Philadelphia received the Diversity in Athletics Award for Overall Excellence from the National Collegiate Athletics Association. The award honors a member institution for diversity efforts in athletic department employment and increasing graduation rates of black student athletes.

• Bernard C. Watson is the first African American to have an endowed chair named in his honor at Temple University. The Bernard C. Watson Chair in Urban Education will be established in the university’s College of Education.

Watson, now retired, was academic vice president and professor of urban studies and urban education at Temple. He also served as an assistant superintendent for the Philadelphia public school system.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.