Shirley Ann (Mathis) McBay (1935 - 2021)

Born 4 May 1935 in Bainbridge, Decatur, Georgia, United States

Died 27 Nov 2021 at age 86 in Los Angeles, California, United States

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Biography

Shirley (Mathis) McBay is Notable.

Shirley Ann Mathis McBay was a mathematician and the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.^[1] She was mathematically gifted and enrolled in college at age 15, graduating with a chemistry degree at age 19.^[2]. She was dean of student affairs at MIT for ten years, and established a nonprofit for improving minority education.

The New York Times newspaper online said: "Showing a gift for numbers from an early age, Shirley reveled in math competitions, besting students much older than she was. She was just 15 when she enrolled at Paine College, in Augusta, Ga., and just 19 when she graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1954." and "Dr. McBay made her greatest mark on her field as the dean of student affairs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1980s. She confronted the challenge of bringing more students from underrepresented minorities into science, technology, engineering and math, both at her university and in higher education broadly."

She married Henry McBay, a professor of Chemistry. She was Professor or Mathematics at Spelman College for many years.^[1].

She passed away in Los Angeles in 2021, survived by two of her sons.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/los-angeles-ca/shirley-mcbay-10468556
2. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/14/science/shirley-mcbay-dead.html