TITLE
Title
RESOLUTION HONORING THE LIFE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF DR. EDWARD BERNARD FORT
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SPONSOR
Sponsor
Commissioner Frankie T. Jones, Jr.
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RESOLUTION
Resolution
WHEREAS, Dr. Edward B. Fort, Ed.D., departed on August 9, 2026 at the age of 94 and is remembered as an accomplished educator, leader and lifelong public servant who successfully strengthened North Carolina A&T State University’s reputation as a global leader in research, engineering and technology education; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Fort was born on April 14, 1932 in Detroit, Michigan and received his Bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University before serving in the US Army in Berlin, Germany. Upon his return to the United States, he pursued his Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and received his Doctorate in Education from the University of California at Berkley in 1964; and
WHEREAS, he made history in 1967 when he became one of the few Black school superintendents in the country upon being selected to lead the Inkster School District in Michigan. In the years following he served as Superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District in California and lead the University of Wisconsin Center System before being installed as the eighth Chancellor of North Carolina A&T State University on April 24, 1982; and
WHEREAS, under his tenure, A&T initiated more than thirty (30) new academic programs, awarded its first doctoral degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering, completed construction of the F.D. Bluford Library, Ronald E. McNair Hall and the Edward B. Fort Interdisciplinary Research Center. Dr. Fort received national and presidential appointments to several notable advisory boards and commissions that continued to earn himself and A&T global recognition and acclaim, including: the first President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (1991), first Black member of the NASA Advisory Council (1991), the NASA Blue Ribbon Commission on t...
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