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Frederick Patterson, Education Administrator born

FrederickD. Patterson

Frederick Patterson was born on this date in 1901. He was a Black doctor and education administrator.

Frederick Douglass Patterson was born in Washington, D. C., but his family moved to Texas when he was young. He received a doctorate in veterinary medicine (1923), a Master of Science (1927) from Iowa State College, and a Ph.D. (1932) from Cornell University. He taught at Virginia State College in Petersburg before joining the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama (1928), where he headed the veterinary division, served as director of the School of Agriculture, and became the institute's third president.

He was president of the Tuskegee Institute from 1935-53. During this time (1944), he founded the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The United Negro College Fund, a fund-raising organization for Historically Black Private Colleges and Universities, administered programs and granted scholarships.  In the mid-1970s, Patterson devised the College Endowment Funding Plan, which depended on funds from private businesses matched with federal money.

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1987. By the year of Patterson's death, the organization had provided funds for 42 member colleges and aided some 45,000 students. Frederick Patterson, educator and prominent black leader, died on April 26, 1988, in New Rochelle, N.Y.

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