The Quotable Black Scholar: Grace Alele-Williams
Grace Alele-Williams (b. 1932)
As long as we are celebrating a woman vice chancellor because she is the first or a woman chief judge because she is the first, then we have not arrived. We look forward to the time when we will have many women in such positions and we will be celebrating so many of them.
(Dr. Grace Alele Williams, the first woman to be appointed Vice Chancellor of an African University, in a 2004 talk a Lagos State University.)
Biographical Notes: Grace Alele-Williams was born in 1932, in Warri, Nigeria. She was educated at the Government School in Warri, Queens College in Lagos, and the University College of Ibaden (now the University of Ibaden). In 1963, Grace Alele Williams earned her doctorate in Mathematics Education from the University of Chicago, becoming the first Nigerian woman to earn a Ph.D. In 1965 she joined the faculty of the University of Lagos. In 1974 she became the University’s first female professor of mathematics education. In 1985 Dr. Alele-Williams became the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin. In 1987 she was awarded the Order of the Niger. She is the first woman to hold that position at an African university. She is a director of Chevron Nigeria Limited.
Posted by Ajuan Mance
Posted in Uncategorized
November 15th, 2008 at 12:42 am
Dear Sir, I’m from Malaysia, and used to know Dr. Grace Alele Williams when I was in Nigeria in the ’70s. She is definitely one of the most charming, and graceful ladies I’ve ever met.
I would love to get in touch if you would be so kind as to forward my email to her, I’ll appreciate that very much. Thank you.