The College has called for a reinvigoration of the fellowship named for Harold Wade Jr. ’68. It brings black alumni to campus to engage with current students.

“You might say Harold Wade was the first Wade Fellow,” reasons Alumni Secretary Betsy Cannon Smith ’84. “He came back to campus often, out of a sense of obligation and goodness. What other students saw in him we wanted to honor and recognize.” The Harold Wade Jr. Memorial Fund was established in 1976 by Wade’s friends and classmates. Since 1977, black alumni Wade Fellows have returned to campus to engage with current students as informal career counselors, mentors and role models.

As a certified ‘old fogey,’ I delighted in regaling students with tales of what Amherst was like for me back in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I was confident they’d be shocked—and I was correct.” — Hugh B. Price ’63 (Wade Fellow 1980-81)

In 2016, the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning transferred the fund to the newly created Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The chief of that office, Norm Jones, has called for a rethinking and reinvigoration of the fellowship, and the College has organized a steering committee of alumni (Angela Brown ’00, Cuthbert “Tuffy” Simpkins ’69 and John Williams ’75) and staffers (among them, Bilal Muhammad ’98).

These Wade Fellows helped show us how to reconcile the blessing and burden of our education, to take it and do something for our communities.” — Adrienne White-Faines ’82

Here are the 21 Wade Fellows who have served thus far, and their current or most recent jobs:

2016–Present
Anthony Jack ’07, sociologist; junior fellow at Harvard’s Society of Fellows

2013–14
Kim Wyche-Etheridge ’87, pediatrician working in public health and assistant professor of pediatrics at Meharry Medical College
Frank Thompson ’87, manager of HIV services, Kansas City Health Department

2011–13
Marissa E. Horne ’00, director of employee technology, American Airlines
Matthew M. Murumba ’04, actor, writer and producer at Kota Productions/Larrikin Productions

2008–11
Stanley Francois-Calhoun ’94, commercial real estate attorney
Nicole D. Scott ’97 (deceased), senior director of new schools, New York City education department

2006–08
Kimberlyn R. Leary ’82, Amherst trustee, Harvard Medical School; associate professor of psychology
L’Quentus Thomas ’97, director of Stonehenge Capital, managing operations of the firm’s community banking subsidiary

2000–02
Antonio Pierre Jackson ’78, lawyer in private practice
Kim Wyche-Etheridge ’87 (see 2013–14)

1998–99
Yvette Mendez ’84 (deceased), attorney, president of Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys

1996–98
Susan Prattis ’80, veterinarian, educator, scientific editor, marketer, writer and veterinary medical researcher

1990–92
Richard V. Sims ’70, physician specializing in gerontology, and professor emeritus at the University of Alabama
Cheryl Singleton ’81, actor

1988–89
Kellie Jones ’81, art historian, curator, MacArthur Fellow, associate professor at Columbia University

1984–85
L. Robert Bolling ’82, CEO of the nonprofit ChildSavers, which provides child development and mental health services

One great success, when I was a Wade Fellow, was an ‘alumni speed interviewing’ event for current students. It was an example of the Wade Fellowship providing opportunities for students to ask ‘silly questions’ and make mistakes in a safe environment and then learn from those mistakes.” — Matthew Murumba ’04 (Wade Fellow 2011-13)

1982–84

Cuthbert “Tuffy” Simpkins II
’69, trauma surgeon, inventor, founder of the Violence Intervention Program and author of Coltrane: A Biography

1981–82
Wayne M. Wormley ’72, professor and consultant specializing in diversity management and culture change; president and CEO, The Wormley Co.

1980–81
Hugh B. Price ’63, retired nonprofit executive and corporate director; formerly vice president of Rockefeller Foundation and president/CEO of the National Urban League

1979–80
Junius Williams ’65, lawyer in private practice, instructor in leadership and community organization at Rutgers University

1977–78
Guichard Parris ’27 (deceased), ran public relations division of the National Urban League