In Memoriam

Samuel E. Kelly Sr. (1926-2009)

Samuel E. Kelly, a longtime educator and university administrator, died of congestive heart failure last month at his home in Redmond, Washington. He was 83 years old.

Dr. Kelly was a native of Greenwich, Connecticut. He entered the Army in 1944 and remained in the service for 22 years, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. While in the service he earned two bachelor’s degrees at West Virginia State College and a master’s degree in history from Marshall University.

After leaving the Army in 1966, Kelly joined the history department faculty at Everett Junior College in Washington State. He was the first African American to hold a faculty position at a state-operated community college in the state. In 1970 Kelly was hired as vice president for minority affairs at the University of Washington. He later served as special assistant to the university president. During his tenure as an administrator at the University of Washington, he earned his doctorate in higher education at the university. He was then hired to a tenured faculty position at the university’s College of Education.

George Allan Russell (1923-2009)

George Russell, the innovative jazz composer and music educator, has died in Boston from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 86 years old.

A native of Cincinnati, Russell made his first appearance on stage at age 7. He attended historically black Wilberforce University in Ohio.

His musical compositions were recorded by such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. After spending seven years in Europe, Russell returned to the United States in 1969 to take a faculty position at the New England Conservatory of Music. He taught there until his retirement in 2004.

Copyright © 2009. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.