Coppin State College

Tents set up on the Coppin State College campus shimmered in gold and white for the fourth annual Caribbean Evening Under the Stars Gala. Strings of twinkle lights swung in the evening breeze, adding further glamour to a party that also celebrated Coppin State's 100th birthday. Guests in satin, sequins and beads supped and socialized, with the promise of a tasty musical treat for dessert -- a concert by the Drifters, Cornell Gunter's Coasters, and the Buck Ram Platters. Among the more than 1,300 guests gathered: Dr. Gretta L. Burnett and Larry Stappler, event co-chairs; Dr. Hattie N. Washington, event coordinator; Dr. Calvin W. Burnett, Coppin State College president; Charles Dutton, Dr. Donald N. Langenberg, Walter Sondheim Jr., Frances Edwards, Everett Garnett, Dr. Delores Harvey, Victorine Q. Adams, Rosales Jenkins, Sherrie Harden-Kober, Maqbool Patel, Ruth Petty, Rosa Pryor, Su Wood, honorees; Ed Bernard, T. Rowe Price managing director; Drew Barry, WMAR-TV vice president and general manager; June Thorne, Baltimore professional actress; Sean Thomas, U.S. Department of Labor criminal investigator; Dr. Yangsoon Song, Coppin State College assistant professor of management science; Dr. Oscar Brilliant, retired Annapolis optometrist; and Lucille M. Johnson, retired Baltimore school principal.

On September 19, 2008, after a lengthy illness, INDIA M. JONES WILLIAMS, passed away at Heritage Harbor Nursing Home. A native Baltimorean, she attended Baltimore City public schools and graduated from Douglass High School in 1945. She attended and graduated from Morgan State University, Coppin State College, Loyola College, and furthered her education at Johns Hopkins University for post-graduate studies. She was also a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. She leaves to mourn one brother-in-law, special nieces and nephews, beloved cousin Blanche Stephany, other relatives and friends in Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington DC areas.

Flossie McLain Dedmond, a poet, writer and for more than three decades an English professor and revered administrator at Coppin State College, died Friday of cancer at her West Baltimore home. She was 93."She was without a doubt one of the most dedicated and staunch supporters Coppin has ever known," said the college's president, Calvin W. Burnett. "I, and the entire Coppin family, are deeply saddened."The Rev. Harold A. Carter, pastor of New Shiloh Baptist Church in West Baltimore, where she was a member, described Mrs. Dedmond as "a genuine Sojourner Truth in matters related to the advancement of Afro-Americans and all people in general.

On July 17, 2006, BARRY HAWKINS died of cancer in Hanover, NH. Born in Baltimore, January 2, 1936, attended Douglas High School, Coppin State College and several fine arts colleges. He was an accomplished artist and sculptor and a lover of the arts and music. He worked as a Naval Engineer in NYC in the early 1960s, and an award winning TV Reporter in Washington, DC, in the late 60s, a radio announcer in Baltimore and Washington, most recently he worked for Vermont Public Radio in the 1990s as an announcer and programmer.

The origins of Leon D. Holsey's passion for Africa are not entirely clear. Maybe it came from the stories he heard from his grandmother about her mother's slave-ship trip through the middle passage; perhaps from the uncle who was involved in Marcus Garvey's back-to-Africa movement; or from his own travels in the merchant marine that first landed him on that continent in 1946.Wherever it came from, the land once disparaged by some as the Dark Continent became a bright light for Holsey, a beacon that shone on generations of students as it guided him through a life of teaching and spiritual exploration.

Shawnette Alston became an orphan just before Christmas last year when an out-of-control Jeep Cherokee plowed into her mother on a sidewalk outside the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.Pearl Brown, Shawnette's mother, was 30. Shawnette, the oldest of five children, will turn 12 Friday.But already she has been awarded a full scholarship to the Coppin State College School of Nursing -- a scholarship Shawnette won't start drawing down until 2003.Coppin officials knew Pearl Brown wanted to be a nurse and that she had passed that dream on to her daughter, a Eutaw-Marshburn Elementary School fifth-grader.

After more than 32 years as president of Coppin State College, Calvin W. Burnett spent his last day on the job as he had many Fridays before it: walking. With his trademark long stride, Burnett went from building to building, seeking out staff and faculty in their offices and cubicles to say farewell, repeating for a final time the rounds he often made on Friday afternoons to check in with his employees. He crisscrossed the snow-covered campus and climbed back stairways, wanting to make sure he wasn't missing anyone.

On August 26, 2003 MARGARET (JEAN) dear aunt of Mildred Moore, Clif ton A. Turner, Sr. and Richard E. Turner, Sr. Also survived by great-nieces and nephews and other relatives. Memorial services will be held Saturday 3 p.m. at Tarves Hall Quiet Room, Coppin State College, 2700 W. North Avenue. Reception to follow. Entombment Arbutus Memorial Park. Family request memorial contributions made payable to Margaret C. Wallace Endowment c/o Coppin State College. Arrangements by PHILLIPS FUNERAL HOME, P.A.

A jazzy crowd gathered at Coppin State College to meet and greet the legendary drummer Max Roach at a VIP reception at this year's Intergenerational Jazz Lovefest. The reception and a separate concert featuring the master percussionist were co-sponsored by the Coppin/Peabody Jazz Society and the Eubie Blake Jazz Institute.The evening's attendants included Camay Murphy, Jazz Lovefest chair and also chair of the Eubie Blake Jazz Museum, and her husband, John Murphy, former publisher of the Afro-American; honorary Jazz Lovefest chair Bernard Berkowitz; and Coppin State College President Dr. Calvin Burnett.

There will not be a choral festival at Coppin State College onSunday as stated in yesterday's Black History Month Calendar in LIVE. There will be a festival sponsored by the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center at 3 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Coppin campus, 2500 W. North Ave. Call 410-383-5585 or 410-625-3113.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 1/30/98

COPPIN STATE Coach: Fang Mitchell, 19th season at Coppin State (304-228), 27th overall (531-273) Affiliation: Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference 2003-04 record: 18-14 (14-4 MEAC) Radio: None Arena: Coppin Center (1,720) Consensus MEAC favorite: South Carolina State Consensus Coppin prediction: Third Starters lost: One Outlook: One glance at Coppin's non-conference opponents and one wonders how the Eagles will manage a winning record: road games against Kentucky, Dayton, Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Utah, Marquette and Minnesota.

Mary Rosemond moved to Rosedale Street in West Baltimore's Rosemont community more than a half-century ago, when the neighborhood was turning over from white to black, everyone still mowed their lawn and Coppin State College was a standout address in the community. But since then, with each passing decade, her neighborhood has gradually declined. And Coppin, now a university, is no longer the same jewel of a location, just part of the fabric in a strained community. To arrive at the North Avenue campus, commuters pass blocks of dilapidated rowhouses and loiterers on busy corners.

Leon Davis Holsey, a retired social science professor at Coppin State College who infused African culture into the curriculum during the four decades he taught there, died July 10 of cancer at his Northwood home. He was 83. Born in Baltimore and raised on McCulloh and on Division streets, he attended Frederick Douglass High School. Finding the attitude there elitist, he dropped out of the 10th grade and worked in shipyards. He also sold newspapers, scrubbed floors and marble steps, and cleaned yards.

Robert James Graves Sr., a District of Columbia elementary school principal who also taught for many years in Baltimore public schools and was an avid basketball player, died of cancer Saturday at University of Maryland Medical Center. The Northeast Baltimore resident was 56. Born in Baltimore and raised on West Fayette Street, he was a 1966 graduate of Carver Vocational-Technical High School, where he was point guard on its varsity basketball team. Newspaper articles referred to him as "Carver's high-point man" and "Carver's scoring machine."

In a move that has caught some Maryland college officials by surprise, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has chosen former Coppin State College President Calvin W. Burnett as his new secretary of higher education. Ehrlich spokesman Shareese DeLeaver said yesterday that the governor would likely make his formal announcement on Burnett next week. As higher- education secretary, Burnett would lead the Maryland Higher Education Commission, an agency with a paid staff of 60 and unpaid board of 12 that is charged with coordinating policy among the state's private and public colleges.

William Cornelius Rhodes Jr., a retired teacher and counselor, died of pneumonia Tuesday at Maryland General Hospital. He was 65 and lived in Ashburton. Mr. Rhodes was born in Baltimore and reared on Bryant Avenue. He was a 1957 graduate of Frederick Douglass High School and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where he earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1964. He was married in 1965 to Shirley J. Baker, who later retired from Sears, Roebuck & Co., where she was a human resources specialist.

The Baltimore Chapter of the NAACP is holding a "Landlovers Party Cruise to Monte Carlo" June 29 at the Tawes Center of Coppin State College.The summer fund-raiser, which begins at 9 p.m., will include an evening of games, food, live jazz, dancing and other entertainment.Tickets cost $18 in advance, $20 at the door and are available at the NAACP Office, 8 W. 26th St., or by calling 366-3300.

David Harvey, 36, creator of African-American flag David Harvey, who founded a company that conceived of and sold an African-American flag, died of a heart attack Jan. 22 at his Morgan Park home. He was 36. He was the president and chief executive officer of Daton Inc., a Northeast Baltimore firm he started in 1991. Family members said that while attending a Black History Month banquet that year, he and his wife, the former Tonya Ivory, got the idea for a flag. They collaborated on its design, which combined red, white, blue, black, green, purple and gold.

On August 26, 2003 MARGARET (JEAN) dear aunt of Mildred Moore, Clif ton A. Turner, Sr. and Richard E. Turner, Sr. Also survived by great-nieces and nephews and other relatives. Memorial services will be held Saturday 3 p.m. at Tarves Hall Quiet Room, Coppin State College, 2700 W. North Avenue. Reception to follow. Entombment Arbutus Memorial Park. Family request memorial contributions made payable to Margaret C. Wallace Endowment c/o Coppin State College. Arrangements by PHILLIPS FUNERAL HOME, P.A.