This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Lafayette Alumni News, January 2005 — The Board of Trustees adopted the following memorial resolution, written by Trustee Riley K. Temple ’71:
Lafayette’s first black alumnus was David K. McDonogh, a slave from Louisiana who was awarded the A.B. degree by the College in 1844 under the auspices of a program sponsored by the American Colonization Society, whose mission was to prepare African-Americans to assume leadership positions in Liberia. Although David McDonogh remained in the United States, completed medical school, and operated a successful practice in New York City, there is no record that he had any contact with his undergraduate college after graduation.
One hundred and five years later, Lafayette presented its second diploma to an African-American. The degree earned was a B.S. in electrical engineering. And the recipient was Roland Merritt Brown.
Unlike David McDonogh, Roland Brown participated actively and meaningfully in the life of his alma mater for more than five decades after he graduated. As an alumnus and trustee, he was an inspiring pioneer and an exceptional role model for the African-American students who followed him to Lafayette. It is a special privilege for me, as one of those students, to present this memorial resolution, which is offered in proud and grateful celebration of Roland Brown’s impact on our college.
When Roland entered Lafayette in 1947 as a transfer student from Drew University, he – like many others in the Class of 1949 – was older than the traditional college undergraduate, having devoted several years to military service during World War II. A bombardier-navigator with the elite black unit known as the Tuskegee Airmen, he attained the rank of 2nd Lieutenant while in active service and ultimately retired from the Air Force Reserve in 1983 with the rank of Major. Roland followed his undergraduate program with graduate study at the Newark College of Engineering and was employed by the Defense Department and then in the private sector.
Despite his growing professional responsibilities, Roland made time for Lafayette. In 1970, as his level of involvement with the College increased, he spoke candidly with an interviewer from the alumni magazine about the “mixed emotions” with which he had weighed an invitation to serve on the Alumni Council Executive Committee. He noted that he had given the matter “some consideration because everyone is trying to get black people involved. I thought it over. I finally decided that I might be able to do something for the black students on campus, if it were nothing more than letting them see that a black graduate was participating in alumni activities.”
Lafayette’s African-American students could not have had a better mentor and friend. An excellent student himself, Roland encouraged the young men and young women with whom he spoke to make academics their priority. He also spoke movingly of the personal debt he owed to Dean Frank Hunt, engineering professors Larry Conover, Finley Smith, and Bill McLean, Coach Bill Anderson, and others who had enriched his two years at Lafayette. He shared his experiences with students during panel discussions and informal presentations and was a regular (and popular) visitor to the Black Cultural Center. Roland was also helpful with Lafayette’s minority recruitment effort.
In 2001 the Association of Black Collegians paid him a special tribute by creating the Roland M. Brown ’49 Award for Outstanding Service to the Community. This award is presented to members of the campus community who significantly help to improve the quality of life for students of color.
The intelligence, forthrightness, and sincerity that were so characteristic of Roland’s interactions with students were qualities that served him equally well as a member of this board. As an active trustee from 1975 to 1990 and then as a trustee emeritus, he remained keenly aware of the ways in which his identity as an African-American had shaped his relationship to Lafayette as a student, as an alumnus, and as a Board member. He readily and generously shared that perspective for the betterment of the College.
Roland was joined in his work on behalf of Lafayette by his beloved wife, Mary, whom he had married in 1945, two years before his arrival on College Hill. They were Sustaining Members of the Marquis Society, and she attended campus programs with him whenever possible. Mary died in the spring of 1999, not long before Roland’s 50th Lafayette Reunion.
In adopting this memorial resolution, Lafayette’s Board of Trustees records its gratitude for Roland Brown’s many years of thoughtful and devoted service and directs that copies be sent to his son, Roland M. Brown, Jr., and to his daughter, Gloria.