Morehouse College President Walter E. Massey ’58 is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. David Vassar Taylor as provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs.

Taylor, who is currently dean of the General College at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn., will assume the position on August 1.

“I am very pleased to be afforded the opportunity to work for an institution that I have long respected,” said Taylor. “I resonate with the vision, I respect the leadership and I look forward to working with faculty, staff and students. This position will allow me to bring 35 years of administrative and faculty experience to bear on some of the exciting challenges and opportunities facing Morehouse. Because this College is one of the best liberal arts colleges in the nation, it will be a joy working here.”

Taylor earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Nebraska, and both his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees (history of African people) from the University of Minnesota.

He is a scholar of the African diaspora and author of Cap Wigington: An Architectural Legacy in Ice and Stone and African Americans in Minnesota.

As associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs in the Minnesota State University System from February 1986 to February 1989, Taylor was responsible for conceptualizing policy needs, submitting new academic policy for Higher Education Coordinating Board approval and reviewing existing policy and procedures for the state system.

Prior to assuming the associate vice chancellorship, Taylor held a number of faculty and administrative positions, including dean of Undergraduate Studies and associate professor of history at the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C.; director of Minority and Special Services Programs at
Macalester College in St. Paul; chairperson and associate professor of the Black Studies Program at the State University of New York at New Paltz; and director of the Office of Minority Affairs at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

Taylor was curator for the Hubert H. Humphrey Collection of the Minnesota Historical Society, as well as editor of the Hubert H. Humphrey Oral History Project and director of the Minnesota Black History Project of the Minnesota Historical Society.

He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including, most recently, the 2004 David Gebhard Award, Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians for the best book written in 2003 and the 2003 Minnesota Book Award for the best book written in the architectural history category.

In 2003, Morehouse awarded him the Gandhi King Ikeda Community Builders Prize. He is also the recipient of the 2002 Whitney Young Lifetime Achievement Award from the Viking Council Boy Scouts of America.

Taylor currently serves on the board of directors of A Commitment to Excellence (ACE), the PAGE Foundation, the Jean Covington Foundation, the HealthEast Corporation and the HOPE Community.

He is married to Josephine Reed-Taylor, who is senior vice president for Academic and Student Affairs at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.