Born: September 15, 1852, New Haven, CT

Education: Yale University, B.S., 1874, Ph.D., 1876, Phi Beta Kappa, 1884

Died: October 28, 1918, New Haven, CT

A son of ex-slaves, Bouchet rests in Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven, Connecticut. In 1988 Yale placed a granite memorial at his grave. An 1874 Yale College graduate, “ranked sixth in a class of 124,” he earned a Yale Ph.D. (Physics) in 1876. He was the first black person to earn a doctorate from an American university.

Facing segregation, Bouchet did not pursue research. Black institutions had few resources to do so. He taught chemistry and physics at the Institute for Colored Youth (ICY) in Philadelphia, a Quaker-supported institution. But “the Du Bois-Washington controversy over industrial vs. collegiate education” (www.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/bouchet_edward_alexander.html) escalated in ICY and it closed the college prep program. Bouchet resigned in 1902, afterward becoming a principal or professor at Negro high schools and colleges in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Virginia, Ohio, and Texas.

He was a revered teacher and mentor. However, his “full impact on black education will never be known” (www.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/bouchet_edward_alexander.html). An Ohio black woman considered him larger than life. “Perhaps the most highly educated person in the area,” she remembered, “he inspired both black and white young people with hitherto unknown goals” www.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/bouchet_edward_alexander.html). His numerous students included her brother, who graduated from Bowdoin College in 1913 and became the first black faculty member at Ohio State University.