ORLANDO, Fla. — Dr. Frederick S. Humphries, Florida A&M university’s longest-serving president and an icon for many in the FAMU community, died Thursday in his Orlando home, the university announced. He was 85.
What You Need To Know
- Former FAMU president Humphries died Thursday in Orlando, university announces
- Humphries presided from 1985 to 2001 and was FAMU's longest-serving president
- Current president Robinson: 'Dr. Humphries is one of FAMU's favorite sons'
Humphries served as FAMU’s president from 1985 to 2001 and received credit for catapulting the historically black university into a national force in higher education.
“Dr. Humphries is one of FAMU's favorite sons,” FAMU’s current president, Dr. Larry Robinson, said in a statement through the university. “He committed his life to the advancement of higher education, in particular within the HBCU community, and changed the trajectory of FAMU.”
Humphries also served, from 1974 to 1985, as president as Tennessee State University, and the Tennessee General Assembly declared in 2001, upon wishing Humphries a happy retirement, that he had guided FAMU to “one of the nation’s premier institutions of higher learning.”
In 1997, under Humphries, FAMU emerged College of the Year by Time Magazine and the Princeton Review.
Humphries graduated from FAMU in 1957 and earned a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh.