Theophilus Ellis McKinney, Jr. ’54 died on January 15, 2004, in Dover, Delaware.

Born on January 20, 1933, in Charlotte, NC, he prepared for college at West Charlotte High School and Boston English High School in Massachusetts. At Bowdoin, he became a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity, which became Delta Sigma Fraternity shortly thereafter. Following his graduation in 1954, he served as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He received three degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University — master of arts in 1955, master of arts in law and diplomacy in 1957, and a doctor of philosophy in 1963. He was Danforth Fellow at the Fletcher School and taught at Tufts, at Florida A&M University, at Southern University in Louisiana, and at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. He was vice president of Howard University in Washington, DC, in 1969-70, an executive with the United Negro College Fund from 1970 to 1975, and president of Forest Industries, Inc., from 1975 to 1980, when he became chair of the board. He was also academic dean and a professor at Delaware State College from 1975 to 1978. Beginning in 1966, he was a consultant with Research Industries, Inc., and was later a guest lecturer, president, and chair of that organization. In recent years, he was a member of the faculty at Rust College in Holly Springs, MS. He was a member of the Burma Research Society, the Society for Values in Higher Education, the International Studies Association, the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce, and the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. Surviving are his wife, Sarah Evans McKinney, whom he married in 1957; three daughters, Marie McKinney, Margaret C. Young, and Linda Dyson; a son, Theophilus E. McKinney, III; and four granddaughters.