Apalachicola native and former Florida A&M University President Frederick S. Humphries died on June 24th at the age of 85.
Humphries was born in Apalachicola in 1935 and attended the Holy Family Catholic School and the all-black Wallace M. Quinn High School.
He became a champion of education, especially for disadvantaged young people.
He graduated with honors from FAMU in 1957, with a degree in chemistry, then earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in physical chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh.
He was Pitt’s first African-American Ph. D. in chemistry.
Humphries returned to FAMU as a chemistry professor in 1968; in 1985 he became the school's 8th president where he drew increasing numbers of National Achievement Scholars to the school, ranking first in the country three times and outpacing Ivy League schools.
Under his leadership, FAMU was named college of the year in 1997 by the Time Magazine/ Princeton Review, enrolled a record number of students, and increased corporate financial support for the University substantially.
He also planned to open a FAMU branch campus in Apalachicola, though that plan never came to fruition.
He served as president until 2001.
In 2001 he helped FAMU win a 2.5 million dollar grant from NOAA to conduct research in the Apalachicola Bay.
A street in Apalachicola was named in his honor.
Dr. Humphries is survived by three children and eight grandchildren.
Antoinette McTurner Humphries, his wife of 46 years, died in 2006.
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