N.C. A&T Mourns Chancellor Emeritus Edward B. Fort

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Aug. 10, 2026) – Edward B. Fort, Ed.D., a giant of an education leader who served as North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s eighth chancellor for 17 years, passed away Sunday, Aug. 9, at 94.

He led North Carolina A&T during a pivotal period in its development from 1982 to 1999 and was later named chancellor emeritus of the university. All told, he was chancellor, chancellor emeritus and a professor of educational leadership for 42 years – more than half of his adult life.

“Dr. Fort played an invaluable role in the development of North Carolina A&T, laying our essential foundation as a research university and making possible so much of who and what we are today,” said Chancellor James R. Martin II. “The great Sir Isaac Newton once wrote, ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.’ Dr. Fort’s shoulders were broad, and from them we saw a future that he first envisioned and that we now work daily to make reality. We are grateful, indeed, that A&T was so large a part of his life’s work.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to his family and all others who, like us, mourn his passing.”

Born April 14, 1932, in Detroit, Fort assumed responsibilities as A&T chancellor Sept. 1, 1981, and was formally installed April 24, 1982. He stepped down June 30, 1999, but continued to serve as an education professor in the Department of Leadership Studies and Adult Education until June 27, 2023.

As chancellor, Fort guided the university to national prominence as a leader in engineering and technology education. During his administration, A&T initiated more than 30 new academic programs and awarded its first doctoral degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering. 

The university also completed more than $50 million in construction, including McNair Hall – home for decades to the College of Engineering – and a new F.D. Bluford Library, completed nearly $30 million in renovations and established the $9 million research center at the library’s former site, which was later named for him. The Edward B. Fort Interdisciplinary Research Center, completed in January 1997, was dedicated March 22, 1999, just three months before the end of his chancellorship concluded.

Fort guided enrollment increases, elevated the globalization of the campus and saw the College of Arts and Sciences theater arts program win two national first-place Kennedy Center/American College Theater festival finishes, among many other accolades for A&T during his tenure. 

The Edward B. Fort Interdisciplinary Research Center, completed in January 1997 and dedicated March 22, 1999, was named in his honor.  

Fort led a life of educational and historic distinction. He began his educational career as curriculum coordinator for Detroit Public Schools in 1964. He was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan and an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He also taught at Michigan State University. 

Fort led the Inkster Michigan Public School System starting in 1967 and the Sacramento (California) City Unified School District starting in 1971. From 1974 to 1981, he served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges, which included 14 two-year colleges, before taking the helm of A&T.

He was well known at A&T for his attention to detail and his seemingly endless appetite to learn and always know more. Contemporaries often recall him taking extensive notes, written in omnipresent yellow legal pads he filled in huge quantities.

Long after Fort stepped down as chancellor, he continued to be a frequent presence at A&T gatherings, including attending every commencement ceremony until the past few years, when mobility became difficult. However, he continued to maintain an office in Bluford Library, packed with hundreds of books and could often be found there, well into his late 80s, reading, writing and working.

President George H.W. Bush appointed Fort to the first President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and in 1991. Admiral Richard Truly, administrator of NASA, also appointed Fort to serve as the first Black member of the NASA Advisory Council. 

In the spring 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Fort as a member of the NASA Blue Ribbon Commission on the Redesign of the International Space Station. In January 1994, U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley appointed Fort to membership on the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Capital Financing Advisory Board. 

In early January 1997, Fort began service as a member of the new National Collegiate Athletics Association Division I Board. He also served on the initial NCAA President’s Commission as chairman of the Executive Board of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Education. 

Fort served as a consultant for several national educational bodies, including the President's National Conference on Education of the Disadvantaged, the National Teachers Corps, the Urban Coalition in Washington, D.C., and the Center of Urban Education in New York City. Recognized by the National Who's Who, he also served as a member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Board of the American Council on Education and the White House Science Advisory Committee, chairing its Program Committee in 1986-87. 

Fort completed two terms as a member of the North Carolina Biotechnology Board, is a charter member of the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina (MCNC) Board of Directors and, in 1992, completed a term as a member of the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology. He served as a member of the Board of Associates for the Center for Creative Leadership since 1996 and was appointed by the Governor's Education Cabinet to serve as a member of the Science and Mathematics Advisory Council in January 1997. In 2013, Fort edited "Survival of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities," to which both he and A&T alumnus Jesse L. Jackson Jr. '87 contributed chapters. 

Fort earned his bachelor’s degree in history and master’s degree in educational administration from Wayne State University, served two years of military duty with the Army in West Berlin, Germany, then earned his doctorate in educational administration and finance from the University of California in Berkeley.  

A&T awarded Fort an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in December 2023. He also received an honorary Doctor of Laws from Wayne State. 

Fort was married to the late Lessie Covington Fort. He is survived by a son, Clarke, and a daughter, Lezlie, and countless nieces, nephews and cousins.