Those We Lost — October 28

Honoring those we lost on October 28 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Edward A. Bouchet

Born September 15, 1852 — died October 28, 1918

Physicist, educator, and school administrator

Bouchet became the first Black American to earn a doctorate from an American university and one of the earliest Americans of any race to receive a Ph.D. in physics. Denied a university post because of racism, he devoted decades to teaching science at the Institute for Colored Youth and other Black schools. Yale and Howard later founded an honor society in his name.

Earl Bostic

Born April 25, 1913 — died October 28, 1965

Alto saxophonist, bandleader, and arranger

Born in Tulsa, Bostic studied at Xavier University in New Orleans and played with territory bands and Fate Marable before leading his own group. His recordings, led by the R&B Top 10 hit Flamingo, made him one of the most commercially successful saxophonists of the early 1950s rhythm-and-blues market. His bands included John Coltrane, Stanley Turrentine, and Blue Mitchell. Bostic bridged swing, jump blues, and rhythm and blues, and influenced younger saxophonists including Coltrane.

Ruth Batson

Born August 3, 1921 — died October 28, 2003

Educator, civil-rights organizer, school-desegregation advocate, and historian

Batson led campaigns against unequal schools in Boston through the NAACP and later worked in education, public service, and community institution-building. Her organizing exposed Northern school segregation, helped establish METCO, and preserved the history of Boston’s Black educational movement.

Marie Maynard Daly

Born April 16, 1921 — died October 28, 2003

Biochemist, researcher, and professor

Born in Queens, New York, Daly earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University in 1947, the first Black woman in the United States to do so. She researched proteins and cell nuclei at the Rockefeller Institute and then studied the relationship between cholesterol and heart attacks. She continued her research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1960. Her research contributed to understanding of diet, cholesterol, and heart disease. In 1988 she established a Queens College scholarship in her parents’ names for students in the physical sciences.

Calvin O. Butts III

Born 1949 — died October 28, 2022

Baptist pastor, college president, and community developer

Butts began as a youth minister at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church in 1972 and served as its senior pastor for more than thirty years. He was president of the State University of New York at Old Westbury from 1999 to 2020 and worked with political leaders across party lines. He led one of the nation’s best-known Black churches and connected its ministry to economic development in Harlem.