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PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
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Princeton, N.J. 08544-5264Contact: Mary Caffrey (609) 258-5748
Alumni Contact: Johnny Mavros, Class of 1971 (973) 242-8031Date: October 1, 1998
Memorial Service Scheduled for Carl Fields, First African-American Dean
Princeton Alumni Invited to Submit Memorabilia
Princeton, N.J. -- A memorial service for Carl A. Fields, the first African-American dean at Princeton and in the Ivy League, has been scheduled for Sunday, October 25 at 2 p.m. in the University Chapel. President Harold T. Shapiro and former presidents William Bowen and Robert Goheen are scheduled to attend.
"Doc" Fields, as the popular administrator was known, died July 20 in New York City after a sudden illness. He was 79.
Fields arrived at Princeton in 1964 as Assistant Director of Student Aid and made history in 1968 as the first African-American to be named Assistant Dean of the College. In addition to his official duties, he served as a mentor to the first wave of African-American students to enroll at Princeton in significant numbers. Fields also served as a liaison to the African-American community in Princeton, establishing crucial links between town and gown that served to ease the transition to campus life for African-American students.
Organizers of the memorial service invite Princeton alumni and others who knew Fields to submit recollections, photographs or memorabilia. The items will be displayed after the service at a reception at Liberation Hall in the University's Third World Center.
For photographs, please include include the date, location, names and affiliation of those in the photograph, and other relevant information. Please submit all materials by October 15 to: The Carl Fields Memorial, P.O. Box 1898, Newark, N.J., 07101-1898.
The Fields obituary is available on the Princeton University web site. The address is: http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/98/q3/0723-fields.htm.
"In my opinion, if total democracy is to be translated from theory into practice, it will be done first in our educational institutions rather than in our political system. The college or university, in particular, must bear the burden of this task. Positive methods must be developed that will effectively cope with the bitterness, frustration, and hostility that pervade the social order. The creation of a large cadre of men and women, black and white, with the ability to plan together, work together, and understand together can only be accomplished if there is a total kind of commitment on the part of the education institutions to promote this level of leadership."
-- Carl A. Fields, writing for University, a Princeton quarterly, Spring 1968