Elder, Alfonso, 1898-1974

Dean of the College of Arts and Science, head of the Graduate Department of Education, and second president (1948-1963) of North Carolina Central University.

In 1948, Alfonso Elder became the second president of the North Carolina College for Negroes (renamed the North Carolina College at Durham in 1947 and North Carolina Central University in 1969). He served in that position until his retirement in 1963.

Alfonso Elder was born on 26 February 1898 in Sandersville, Ga. He was the son of Thomas Jefferson Elder and Lillian Elder. Elder completed elementary and high school at the Thomas Jefferson Elder School in Sandersville, Ga., and received his A.B. degree from Atlanta University in 1921. He later received both a Masters of Arts and Masters of Education from Columbia University and completed post-graduate work at Chicago University and the University of Cambridge.

Elder joined the faculty of the North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham, N.C., in 1924 as professor of education and dean of the college. In 1931, he married Louise Holmes of Atlanta, Ga., the daughter of Thomas Willis Holmes. The couple did not have children. In 1943, Elder left the college to become director of the School of Education at Atlanta University.

In the fall of 1947, Elder returned to North Carolina College for Negroes, and when the school's first president, James E. Shepard, died in November 1947, Elder succeeded him. During Elder's 15-year tenure as president, the college expanded, added programs, and integrated. Elder retired in September 1963.

Elder was a member of the Durham Community Redevelopment Commission and the Durham Human Relations Committee, a member of the Board of Directors of Durham's Mutual Savings and Loan Association, a trustee of the Board of Lincoln Hospital, a member of the Durham Community Benevolent Commission, and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He was also an active congregant at the Saint Titus Episcopal Church in Durham.

Elder died on 7 August 1974 in Lincoln Hospital in Durham.