Dr. Maxine Mimms

Dr. Maxine Buie Mimms
March 4,1928 – October 8, 2024
Our communities have lost a beloved and honored educational trailblazer. Dr. Maxine Buie Mimms transitioned from this life on October 8, 2024, in Auburn, WA, under the loving care of family and friends. Born in Newport News, VA on March 4th,1928, she was the youngest of five children born to Benson and Isabella (DeBerry) Buie. Her father was a supporter of Marcus Garvey's philosophy of post-enslavement self-actualization. As she recalled, "The vocabulary in my house was always 'improvement', Negro improvement." Her mother was a teacher who Maxine had watched teach neighbors how to read at their kitchen table. She attended Booker T Washington grade school and Huntington High School before heading to college.
Mimms held a BA degree from Virginia Union University, a Master's Degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, where she met and married her husband. Later she completed a PhD in Educational Administration from The Union Graduate School in San Francisco. Dr. Mimms, as she is professionally and affectionately known, dedicated her life to the education of African American students from PreK to graduate degrees.
Maxine and her husband, Jacque Bush Mimms, headed out west in 1953. She followed her mother's love of teaching as Seattle Public Schools first contracted African American elementary teacher where she taught 4th and 5th grade at Leschi Elementary along with her colleague the late Ora Franklin. Together they used their position to increase the number of Black teachers by recruiting them from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Her most non-traditional student in those years was Jimi Hendrix who taught his classmates a song to help them remember the names of the continents. In 1961 she transferred to Kirkland Public Schools and in 1964 returned to Seattle as an administrator for Seattle Public Schools. In 1968 she was made the Project Director for a district-wide teacher training program in Intergroup Relations, financed by the Civil Rights Act.
In 1969, Arthur Fletcher, Asst. Secy of the U.S. Dept. of Labor, called on Mimms to join him in Washington, D.C. Maxine moved to Washington with her three school-aged children – Ted, Tonie and Kenneth – and went to work as Special Asst. to the first African American Director of the Women's Bureau, Elizabeth Duncan Koontz.
Dr. Mimms and her family returned to Washington State where she joined the faculty of the new Evergreen State College in Olympia in 1972. She lived in Tacoma which, at the time, had no public four-year institution. Maxine quickly saw the opportunity offered by Evergreen's curricular flexibility to serve the many place-bound African American adults and retired military with the GI Bill who wanted to complete their four-year degrees. She began enrolling students at the college and teaching them in her home in the early morning and evenings, before and after completing her Olympia responsibilities. In 1982 the college and the Higher Education Coordinating Board formally approved Evergreen's off-campus program which by that time had 150 graduates with BA degrees and has thrived and expanded its offerings. The motto of the Tacoma Campus, "Enter to Learn, Depart to Serve", is the foundation of the programs there and what makes this campus popular among African Americans and other adults who seek a unique higher education.
Her work enriched the whole college when she invited her friend, Odetta, the famed folk singer, to become a visiting faculty at Evergreen in1989. Another friend, poet and writer, Dr. Maya Angelou was also an invited guest, speaking on both the Olympia and Tacoma campuses. Maxine Mimms taught at the college for 20 years until 1992. During her time there she was called upon as a Visiting Faculty by the Fielding Institute, Antioch University in Seattle, the innovative Goodrich Program at the University of Nebraska, St, Augustine College and she worked to establish the Zion Prep Academy Teacher Training Cohort in Seattle.
She never considered herself "in retirement" but rather, "on reassignment ". She spearheaded the Maxine Mimms Academy in Tacoma which provided daily mentoring and classes for middle school aged students who had been expelled to get them back into the public schools. Her love of music led her to produce Let the Strings Speak an annual musical production at the Langston Hughes Performance Arts Institute in Seattle that brought together the rhythms of African drums and Black classical string instrument players. At age 95 she was recognized by the Seattle Opera as a season ticket holder for more than 30 years.
On her 90th birthday, Tacoma's Mayor, Victoria Woodards, presented her with the key to the city and Governor Jay Inslee proclaimed her a shared treasure. At the time of her transition at 96 she was active every day, sharing her experience across generations as Elder of Distinction for African Kenyan Women Cultural Reconnection, Africatown Community Land Trust, Rainier Valley Leadership Academy, First Place Imani Village, and seminar leader of Life Enrichment Community Conversations in Seattle. Her lifelong activism and leadership were widely recognized by numerous awards including, in 2001, the first annual Sustainable Community Outstanding Leadership Award. Her image has
been etched on a skyscraper at 23rd and Union in the heart of Seattle's Africatown, a regrowth of the Black community. Her travels to Kenya placed her in a "Conversation Between Elders" at the Kogelo home of Sarah Obama, the grandmother of President Barack Obama.
She leaves to sustain her legacy three children: Theodore (Tafelala), Tonie and Kenneth; three granddaughters, Elyse, Chantel and Lovell, and two great granddaughters, Jenesis and Lilith, as well as other relatives and all who know, love and respect her as mentor, professor and friend. We will miss her engaging smile, keen conversations and bright engagement with the world.
A private family funeral was held on October 9th, at the Scott Funeral Home in Tacoma. At her request, there will be a Celebration of her Life and Legacy at The Evergreen State College Tacoma Campus on Founder's Day, on March 8, 2025.
Memorial contributions in her honor may be made to the Dr. Maxine Buie Mimms Scholarship that supports students at Evergreen State College Tacoma Campus with an emphasis on low-income and non-traditional students. Donations can be made on-line at (www.evergreen.edu/give/mimms) or by sending a check to The Evergreen State College Foundation (with "Mimms Scholarship" on the memo line) 2700 Evergreen Pkwy NW, Olympia, WA 98505.