Archie C. Epps III (May 19, 1937, Lake Charles, Louisiana – August 21, 2003, Boston, Massachusetts) was dean of students at Harvard College from 1970 to 1999. He was one of the first black administrators at Harvard.
Early life and education
Epps was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 1937, one of three sons. He attended Talladega College, a historically black college, and Harvard Divinity School.
Marriage and family
He married Rae Pace Alexander, daughter of Sadie Tanner Mossell and Raymond Pace Alexander, both attorneys in Philadelphia. They divorced before 1971.
He married Valerie Epps, who is an attorney and professor at Suffolk Law School. They had two sons, Josiah and Caleb.
Academic career
He taught at Harvard University in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, where he was a specialist in Islam.
In 1964 Epps was appointed as Assistant Dean of Harvard College by John Usher Monro, becoming one of Harvard's first black administrators. In 1970 he became the college's Dean of Students, in which capacity he served until 1999.
Books
- He edited The Speeches of Malcolm X at Harvard (Morrow, 1967), and published a new edition with a revised introduction in 1991.
- With Armand Clesse, president of the Harvard-Luxembourg Association, he co-edited ”Present at the Creation”: The Fortieth Anniversary of the Marshall Plan (Harper and Row, 1990), based on conferences he organized at Harvard in the 1980s and 1990s.
- 1992, Epps published Harvard's first handbook on race relations.
Legacy and honors
- 1999, Epps received the Rabbi Martin Katzenstein Award
- 2004, he was posthumously awarded the Preston N. Williams Black Alumni/ae Award by Harvard Divinity School.
References
- Anthony Flint, "Harvard's Archie Epps is dead at 66, The Boston Globe, 23 August 2003
- Answers.com Archie C. Epps III
- McCain, Nina (September 18, 1970). "Epps Appointed Dean of Students At Harvard: First Black to Get Job". The Boston Globe.
- "HDS - Alumni Relations - Katzenstein Award Recipients". Harvard Divinity School. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
- "Harvard Divinity - Press Release - 2004 Alumni Award Recipients". Harvard Divinity School. June 2004. Retrieved 17 May 2010.