peopleatthehouse
Passages Benjamin McLaurin ’69 was the College’s Earl of Etiquette and Duke of Social Graces enjamin P. McLaurin ‘69 made it his business to make sure Morehouse Men had a sense of style and could speak and socialize with the best. For 38 years as an educator, advocate, career counselor, motivator and supportive critic, he molded men of Morehouse into Morehouse Men. After a brief illness, McLaurin died May 22 at the age of 60. A memorial service was held June 1 in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel. Fellow faculty, staff and former students, many of whom credited McLaurin with helping them create the careers that they have, paid tribute to the Morehouse legend. “[He] helped me get my first summer job as a student in Atlanta working for Delta Airlines,” said C. Howie Hodges, II ’82 of Falls Church, Va. “He taught me the importance of giving back and making sure to keep Morehouse students in mind when filling internships and new job postings while I was a senior executive at a large financial services institution,” Hodges said. “He has thousands of brothers who will miss him, not only for his great sense of style, but also for his great sense of humor and for his greatest gift of giving.” McLaurin is a co-founder of the National and International Spring Tour for business administration and economics majors, along with James Hefner, president emeritus and the Thomas and Patricia Frist Professor of Economics & Business at Tennessee State University, and John Williams ‘69, dean of the Division of Business Administration and Economics. the spring tour gives students the opportunity to travel to many business centers throughout the nation, and globally as well—from China to South Africa, Italy to Japan, Brazil to France. “For 13 years, I can honestly say that I worked alongside a man who achieved his life’s calling: to nurture and develop generations of young African American men into global civil leaders,” said Belinda Johnson White, coordinator of the Leadership Studies. “Ben fully understood that in order to be a leader, one must first be a professional,” she said. “There is no doubt in my mind that the leadership lessons he taught will continue ad infinitum by the way of the thousands of young men he developed during his 39 years of service at Morehouse.” In 2006-07, McLaurin’s efforts placed at least 50 Morehouse interns on Wall Street for the summer of 2007. According to Williams, it is an impressive record by any standard and sets the bar for other American colleges and universities. A native of New York, McLaurin was the godson of the late A. Philip Randolph, the founder of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the country’s first black labor union. McLaurin earned an associate degree in mathematics from Bronx Community College and graduated with a bachelor’s of arts degree in English from Morehouse in 1969. Shortly thereafter, he began his career as the first director of Career Placement at Morehouse College. He became the director of Career Services under the Division of Business Administration and Economics in 2003. McLaurin brought a sense of theatrics to the College as a member of the King Players and director and participant in the Morehouse College Faculty and Staff Follies. ■
B Benjamin McLaurin ’69
The Benjamin P. McLaurin Endowed International Fellowship has been established to provide perpetual funding for the International Spring Tour. Donations may be made online at www.morehousealumniandfriends.com/efr.
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