Herman Edward Eure (PH.D. ’74)
By Nathan O. Hatch
February 16, 2017
Since 1974, when he became the first African-American to join the faculty, Professor Herman Edward Eure has been instrumental in the integration of Wake Forest, pioneering the effort to build an institution that promotes equality, inclusion and diversity.
Born the seventh of 10 children in Corapeake, North Carolina, Professor Eure was valedictorian of his high school and attended Maryland State College on academic and athletic scholarships. As an undergraduate, he thrived academically and became active in student government as well as the civil rights movement. After graduating in 1969, he was awarded the prestigious Ford Fellowship to fund five years of graduate studies. Professor Eure chose to pursue his Ph.D. in biology at Wake Forest, becoming the first African-American graduate student on the Reynolda Campus and the first African-American to earn a doctorate.
When he was offered a faculty position at Wake Forest at age 27, Professor Eure was already recognized as a campus leader, serving as a role model and mentor to minority undergraduate students. In 1977, Professor Eure helped establish the Office of Minority Affairs, now the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, that created the foundation we build upon today.
Professor Eure’s bold, innovative and enthusiastic approach both in and out of the classroom earned him not only the respect of his students but a faculty following as well. He was awarded the inaugural Trident Professor Award from Delta Delta Delta in 1990 and the John Reinhardt Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2001. He also received the Donald O. Schoonmaker Faculty Award for Community Service in 2012. He served as chair of the biology department for several years and as associate dean of faculty development from 2006 to 2010. Professor Eure has said that being named the first associate dean of faculty development was one of the highlights of his career because it afforded him the opportunity to mentor younger faculty and ensure they had the resources to excel in the classroom.
In 2008, Professor Eure was selected as the first faculty member to deliver the Founders’ Day Convocation address, encouraging Wake Forest to be mindful of our best traditions, while striving to become better. Professor Eure’s career honors two of Wake Forest’s best traditions in the teacher-scholar ideal and the Pro Humanitate mission to serve, but he is celebrated as the man who skillfully, gracefully and tirelessly created a better Wake Forest for our young men and women. On this Founders’ Day, nearly a decade after Professor Eure delivered his convocation address that urged us to be a better Wake Forest, we honor this exceptional and forward-thinking professor who has fulfilled his own charge.
In gratitude for his decades of service as a gifted and inspiring teacher-scholar, his dedication and commitment to the spirit of Pro Humanitate and his pioneering work on campus for equality, diversity and inclusion, Wake Forest University confers its highest honor, the Medallion of Merit, upon Professor Herman Edward Eure on this Sixteenth day of February, Two Thousand Seventeen