North Carolina A&T chancellor emeritus Edward Fort dies

NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY

North Carolina A&T State University chancellor emeritus Edward Fort, who died Aug. 9, oversaw growth of the campus' footprint and academic rigor over 17 years.

Edward Fort Ed.D., who led North Carolina A&T State University’s surge as an academic and economic engine over 17 years, died Aug. 9 at age 94.

Dr. Fort led A&T during an explosive period of development from 1981-99 that positioned the historically Black college to expand its national reputation as a leader in engineering and research. A&T, the nation’s largest HBCU and produces more Black engineering graduates than any college in the U.S. A&T enrolled 15,275 students in the 2025-26 academic year – the most of any HBCU.

“Dr. Fort played an invaluable role in the development of North Carolina A&T, laying our essential foundation as a research university and making possible so much of who and what we are today,” A&T Chancellor James R. Martin II said in a statement. “The great Sir Isaac Newton once wrote, ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.’ Dr. Fort’s shoulders were broad, and from them we saw a future that he first envisioned and that we now work daily to make reality. We are grateful, indeed, that A&T was so large a part of his life’s work.”

As chancellor, Dr. Fort led A&T’s transformation as a leader in engineering and technology education. During his administration, A&T initiated more than 30 new academic programs and earned approval for its first doctoral degrees – mechanical engineering and electrical engineering – in 1984. The university also completed more than $50 million in construction, including McNair Hall – the College
of Engineering’s headquarters – and a new F.D. Bluford Library as well as $30 million in renovations and a $9 million research center at the library’s former site, which was named the Edward B. Fort Interdisciplinary Research Center in 1997.

During Dr. Fort’s tenure, A&T’s enrollment grew and the campus’ academic reputation expanded beyond STEM excellence. The College of Arts and Sciences theater arts program, for example, earned a pair of first-place Kennedy Center/American College Theater festival awards.

Even after stepping down as chancellor, Dr. Fort was a presence on A&T’s campus as an education professor in the Department of Leadership Studies and Adult Education until 2023, and
maintained an office in Bluford Library, where he could often be found reading, writing and working well into his 80s.

A Detroit native, Dr. Fort started his education career as curriculum coordinator for Detroit Public Schools in 1964 and was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan as well as adjunct professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He also taught at Michigan State University. He was hired as superintendent of the Inkster Michigan Public School System in 1967 and the Sacramento, California’s City Unified School District in 1971. From 1974-81, he was chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges, which included 14 two-year campuses before taking moving to A&T.

President George H.W. Bush appointed Dr. Fort to the first President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and in 1991 as well as becoming the first Black member of the NASA Advisory Council when he was appointed by NASA Administrator Admiral Richard Truly. In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Fort to NASA’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the Redesign of the International Space Station and in 1994 was appointed by U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley to the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Capital Financing Advisory Board.

Dr. Fort earned bachelor’s and master’s degree in educational administration from Wayne State University in Detroit and served two years of military duty in West Berlin, Germany before earning a doctorate in educational administration and finance from the University of California in Berkeley.

Comments