REMARKABLE ROCHESTERIANS

N. Evelyn Brandon

(1917-1995)

A native of South Carolina, she came to Rochester with her family as a child and went on to study at Howard University and then teach at the University of Alabama in Montgomery and what is now Hampton University. She studied the then-fledgling field of gerontology at the University of Chicago, returned to Rochester to help care for her ailing parents, and took a job as director of adult programs for the YWCA. In 1966, she joined the RIT faculty and became an assistant professor of psychology; she was the university’s first full-time Black professor. She retired as professor emeritus in 1985. In a 1986 interview, she said of her students, 'I wanted them to have a feeling that growing old was not growing useless.' A tireless community volunteer, she was on the boards of the Rochester Public Library and Park Ridge Hospital.. She also was a member of the Book Lovers Club, Church Women United, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the Federation of Negro Women’s Club and the Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church. The Evelyn Brandon Center in Rochester is named in her honor.