1st Black Woman to Head University Dies
Marguerite Ross Barnett, the first black woman to head a major U.S. university, has died of complications from cancer. She was 49.
Ms. Barnett, who took over as president of the University of Houston in September, 1990, was vacationing with her husband, Walter King, on Maui when she died Wednesday.
A little more than a year after taking office, she told university officials she was ill. She took a leave of absence last month.
Ms. Barnett, the school’s eighth president, was praised for bringing prestige to the 33,000-student university and inspiring the largely minority student body during her tenure.
Ms. Barnett, a political scientist, had served on the faculties of the University of Chicago and Princeton, Howard and Columbia universities.
She is survived by her husband, a daughter, Amy Barnett of New York City, and her mother, Mary Eubanks of Houston.
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