RONALD C. FOREMAN Jr.

FOREMAN, JR., RONALD C.
Two weeks after the death of his beloved wife of fifty-nine years, Ann Carol Foreman, Dr. Ronald Foreman, Jr. passed away at the E.T. York Hospice Care Center on November 11, 2014. He was 86 years of age. Dr. Foreman was born on October 27, 1928 in Chicago, IL to Ronald C. Foreman, Sr., and Consuelo Maude Wilson, both of New Orleans, LA and was raised in Durham, NC where his father was a Comptroller for the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Co. He was their only child.
Dr. Foreman earned his BA Degree from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), Hampton, VA, in 1949, a Masters in English from North Carolina Central College (now North Carolina Central University), Durham, NC in 1950, and a PH.D. in Mass Communications from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in 1968. In 1967, he and his wife celebrated the birth of their only son, Everett.
Prior to finishing his PH.D., Dr. Foreman taught at a number of historically Black Schools in the South including, Shaw University, Knoxville College, and Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University). He then taught two years at Illinois State University, Normal, IL. Subsequently he was hired by the University of Florida in 1970 where he had the distinction to be among the first group of tenure track Black faculty members to be hired by UF. At UF he served as the first director of the Afro-American Studies Program (now African-American Studies), a position he held until his retirement from UF in 2000.
During his time in Gainesville, Dr. Foreman served on a number of professional and civic boards including the State of Florida's Florida Folk-Life Association and on the board of Directors of the U.S. Library of Congress. He also was a longtime board member of the Bell Nursery School. Among his wide variety of personal interests, Dr. Foreman had a lifelong love of music, and he spent a lifetime building a collection of recordings encompassing all types. He had a special interest in the origins of African-American blues and jazz music, an interest which became a core component of the curriculum he taught the many students who took his AFA2000 class at UF during his thirty year teaching career.
Dr. Foreman will repose in the Chestnut Memorial Chapel on Friday, November 21st, 2014 from 2:00pm until 7:00pm, during which time the family will receive friends from 5:00pm until 7:00pm. A memorial tribute will be held for him at a later date. He is survived by his son, Everett, his daughter-in-law; Vivian, her son Rakeem Wiggins, and a host of extended family, friends, and godchildren.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Alzheimer's Association.
'A CHESTNUT SERVICE'