23 Facts About Wade Ellis

Wade Ellis was an American mathematician and educator.

Wade Ellis taught at Fort Valley State University in Georgia and Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee and earned his Ph.

Wade Ellis carried out classified research on radar antennas at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and taught at Boston University and Oberlin College, where he became Full Professor in 1953.

Wade Ellis returned to the University of Michigan in 1967 as Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Professor of Mathematics until his retirement in 1977, when he was named professor emeritus.

Wade Ellis' father, Whitfield Washington, was born on September 26,1870, in Sumter County, Alabama.

Wade Ellis escaped a possible lynching by making his way south to Mobile, Alabama and finding work as a cook on an international trade ship where he traveled to the Caribbean and the west coast of Africa.

Wade Ellis eventually returned to the United States and moved to Oklahoma, changing his name to Whit Ellis and opening a restaurant.

Wade Ellis' mother, Maggie Ellis, was born on August 25,1880, in Dallas, Texas.

Wade Ellis's father, James Riley, was likely born into slavery in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1844 before joining the Union Army towards the end of the American Civil War and eventually becoming a Buffalo Soldier.

Wade Ellis met Whit in 1899 and the two were married in 1900.

Wade Ellis was born in Chandler, Oklahoma on June 9,1909, one of ten children.

Wade Ellis took up the trombone and played in a family band.

Wade Ellis excelled academically and attended Douglass School, graduating at 14.

Wade Ellis received his bachelor's degree from Wilberforce University, Ohio in 1929, at age 18, his master's degree from the University of New Mexico in 1938, and his Ph.

Wade Ellis died of a heart attack on November 20,1989, in San Jose, California.

Wade Ellis earned his master's degree from the University of New Mexico in 1938, though he was forced to march at the end of his graduation line because of his race.

Wade Ellis began teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in Oklahoma, and taught at the Boys Industrial School in Boley, Oklahoma, Fort Valley State College in Georgia, and at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, all of which were segregated.

Wade Ellis encouraged his brother Francis Willis to enroll in a summer program at the school, and Frank eventually became a research assistant and enrolled at the school.

Wade Ellis taught at Boston University before becoming the first black faculty member at Oberlin College in 1948, where he stayed for 19 years.

Wade Ellis consulted with several international groups on how to encourage mathematics education in developing countries, and in 1966 he was decorated by the government of Peru for his contributions to their higher education.

Wade Ellis took on administrative positions elsewhere, including becoming vice chancellor of academic affairs at University of Maryland Eastern Shore and interim president of Marygrove College.

Wade Ellis wrote the foreword to Black Mathematicians and Their Works, which was published in 1980.

The book was part of the push to eliminate inequities in math education of minority students, and Wade Ellis wrote that it was fighting back against the beliefs held by teachers that promising young black students were incapable of being mathematicians.