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Terrell, Evanel Elizabeth Renfrow (Attended ISC 1926-1929)

Evanel Elizabeth Renfrow was born in 1908 in Red Wing, Minnesota. She grew up in Grinnell, Iowa, where she graduated from Grinnell High School in 1926. Renfrow started her Bachelor’s degree coursework in Home Economics at Iowa State that fall but left without completing coursework (Kaiser, 2020). She finished her B.S. degree at the University of Iowa before earning a Master’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from that school in 1935. Beyond her academic accomplishments in Iowa, she completed several fellowships at the University of Chicago and the Freedman’s Institute in Washington, D.C.

Renfrow taught at multiple HBCUs, including Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri; Tuskegee University; Florida A&M University; and Savannah State University. At both Lincoln University and Savannah State University she established chapters of the African American sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. The majority of her professional career was spent working at Savannah State University, where she served as chairperson of the Home Economics Department for two decades. Retiring in 1976, she moved to Chicago and later passed away in 1994. She and her husband, Carl C. Terrell, are buried in Beaufort National Cemetery in South Carolina.

Sources

Photo Credit: Grinnell College. (1926). The Grinnellian.

Kaiser, Daniel H. (2020). Grinnell stories: African Americans of early Grinnell. Grinnell, IA: Grinnell History Museum.

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Whibby, Thomas Wiggins (Attended ISC Fall 1924-Winter 1925)

Headshot of Thomas Wiggins Whibby

Thomas Wiggins Whibby, one of five children, was born 4 February 1892 to Kansas City, MO, to Thomas H. Whibby, a teamster, and Sarah Margaret Wiggins Whibby. Before studying at Iowa State, Thomas was self-employed in Kansas City as a transfer driver, according to his WWI draft card. In 1920, he was employed as a butcher at a packing house there.

He entered ISC in the mid-1920s, and his stay at the school was brief: fall 1924 to winter 1925. By the time of the 1925 Iowa Census, Whibby was rooming with fellow ISC students Holloway Smith, the second African American football player at ISC; Benjamin Crutcher; and Harold Tutt at 2522 Chamberlain Street, the Ames home of Tutt’s grandmother, Louise Wynn, mother-in-law of the home’s owner, Arthur Marshall.

Whibby appears to have moved to Berkeley, California, after leaving Ames, as he is listed in “good standing” among members of the Alpha Epsilon Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha there in October 1928 (“Roster of Alphas”). By 1930, he had moved to Detroit, where he had become Secretary of the Alpha Upsilon Chapter at the City College of Detroit by February 1930 (“Official,” 1930). Later that same year, The Sphinx reported that “Brother Whibby has been for some time a meat inspector for Uncle Sam” (Griffith, 1930). While others among the Alpha Upsilon Chapter were finding it difficult to stay enrolled in school during the Depression, Whibby was gainfully employed by the U.S.D.A. His employment by the U.S.D.A.’s Department of Animal Industry suggests that he studied Agriculture Sciences courses while at ISC.

Between 1930 and 1940, Thomas married Frieda M. Whibby, and by 1940, they had moved to New York City, where, the Federal Census indicates, he continued his employment as a meat inspector for the U.S.D.A. despite having completed only three years of his four-year college degree. That same job took him to Chicago, where he registered for the WWII draft in 1942 and was still working by the time of the 1950 Census.

Thomas Wiggins Whibby died in Port Charlotte, Florida, 22 Jul 1982 (Find a Grave, 2020).

Sources

Find a Grave, database and images. (2020, Apr. 10). Memorial page for Thomas Wiggins Whibby (1 Feb 1892–22 Jul 1982), Find a Grave Memorial ID 208924226. Retrieved from (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/208924226/thomas-wiggins-whibby. Maintained by Angelina Davis (contributor 47805424).

Griffith, Clifton H. (1930, Oct.). Alpha Upsilon finds its pledges promising. The Sphinx, vol. 16(4), p. 33. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/apa1906network/docs/193001604

Official Alpha Phi Alpha directory. (1930, Feb.). The Sphinx, vol. 16(1), n.p. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/apa1906network/docs/193001601

Roster of Alphas in good standing. (1928, October). The Sphinx, vol. 14(4), p, 21. ISSUU. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/apa1906network/docs/192801404

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Walker, Vesta V.  (Attended ISC in 1918)

Headshot of Vesta V Walker

Vesta V. Walker was born in Kansas in 1898, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Shores. She graduated from Sioux City Central High School in 1916. A member of the Friendship Club, she was quoted as being one who “had a strong character,” “very entertaining,” and could “always be relied upon.” Upon enrolling at Iowa State College she made it through Freshman year despite suffering from “nervous prostration” as the Bystander reported on 22 March 1918. The ISC General Catalog lists her as a Home Economics student from Sioux City in 1917-1918.

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