Frederick Douglass Patterson

Frederick Douglass Patterson (born October 10, 1901, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 26, 1988, New Rochelle, New York) was an American educator and prominent black leader. He served as the president of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (later Tuskegee Institute; now Tuskegee University) in 1935–53, and was the founder of the United Negro College Fund (1944).

Patterson received both a doctorate in veterinary medicine (1923) and a Master of Science (1927) from Iowa State College; he also attended Cornell University (Ph.D., 1932). He taught at Virginia State College in Petersburg before joining Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama (1928), where he headed the veterinary division, served as director of the School of Agriculture, and then became the institute’s third president. During his years leading Tuskegee, Patterson introduced new programs in dietetics, veterinary medicine, and commercial aviation—the latter making possible the Tuskegee Airmen..

In founding the United Negro College Fund, Patterson conceived an organization for historically black private colleges that would administer programs and grant scholarships. By the year of Patterson’s death, it was providing funds for 42 member colleges and aiding some 45,000 students. Patterson also served as president of the Phelps Stokes Fund (1957–70), a foundation sponsoring educational programs for African Americans, Native Americans, and Africans. In the mid-1970s he devised the College Endowment Funding Plan, a program that depended on funds from private businesses that were matched with federal moneys. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1987.