THE LEGACY OF
SAM KELLY 1926—2009
THE UW’S FIRST VP FOR MINORITY AFFAIRS OPENED THE DOORS OF DIVERSITY By Julie Garner
Few people have the personal courage to speak truth the way Samuel E. Kelly, ’71, did to University of Washington President Charles Odegaard in 1970. Tapped to lead a new minority affairs program at the UW, Kelly told Odegaard that he would take the position only if he could grow the program even during economic downturns, if he got the budget he needed, and only if he was appointed vice president for the Office of Minority Affairs. “I didn’t want my office to be behind the football stadium in a little shed,“ he recalled in a taped oral history project about social justice and the history of diversity at the UW. Kelly, who died July 6 at the age of 83, was a trailblazing titan for diversity who cracked open doors virtually closed to students, faculty and staff of color at the UW. Thousands of minority and economically disadvantaged students who have earned degrees from the UW over the past 30-plus years did so supported by programs that Kelly pioneered. Kelly himself earned a Ph.D. in higher education administration from the UW in 1971. A lifelong advocate of education and a retired lieutenant colonel with 22 years in the U.S. Army, Kelly gave the position everything he had for almost a decade, working with discipline and creativity to increase the numbers of underrepresented students at the UW and to ensure their success. “It’s 39 years later, and diversity is one of the six core values of the UW. Sam Kelly did the groundwork,” says Emile Pitre, ’69, associate vice president for minority affairs. Today, the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D) continues to offer programs that carry on Kelly’s legacy. In 2005, an annual lecture series was begun to honor Kelly’s contributions. Personally and professionally, Kelly was a study in contrasts. He was known for his straight-talking, no-nonsense style, an approach some found
“ He was a man with a very, very big heart.” Samuel E. Kelly, ’71, was the UW’s first vice president of minority affairs. He died July 6th at the age of 83. Photograph courtesy of Donna Kelly.
provocative. Eventually, though, most people found there was another side to him—a warm and deeply caring side. Pitre first met Kelly when he was a UW graduate student. “When Sam and I met, we didn’t meet on great terms, but it turned into a great friendship and he served as a mentor for me for many years. He had great compassion,” he says. Like many grad students, Pitre and his family were scraping by. Then tragedy befell the Pitres when their young daughter died. “We decided to take the body to Louisiana to bury her there, but we lacked the finances to do so. We borrowed money and took her anyway. While we were away, Sam collected money and when we returned, we had the money to cover our expenses. He was a good man and I’ll always be grateful for what he did for me and for the many, many,
underrepresented minorities and economically disadvantaged students,” Pitre recalls. Sheila Edwards Lange, ’00, ’06, the current vice president of OMA&D, remembers when she was the interim vice president and had applied for the permanent position. Kelly invited her to dinner. “It was kind of like an interview,” she recalls. Later, after she was appointed to the position, she discovered that Kelly had written a supportive letter on her behalf, one she had not solicited. “It was so kind,” she says. “He was a man with a very, very big heart.” Contributions can be made to the Samuel E. Kelly Endowed Scholarship Fund. Visit www.uwfoundation.org/SamKelly. Julie Garner is a Seattle-area freelance writer who writes frequently for Viewpoints 5
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