Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists

A Memorial Tribute to George A. Breathett

by

James R. Jarrell

North Carolina A&T State University

...the joy of personal contacts is the greatest excitement one can have in life, and is never satisfied. But it is only by work that one finds happiness. I would turn from personal contacts and give them up if I didn’t feel within me that my power of loving people was a sincere thing--in fact, the only touch of genius that I possess. I hope that what I so much desire to do can be accomplished, to give real friendship, and to gather people together who have something real in them. I should like this house to become centre where the contact is sincere . . .

George Breathett enjoyed bringing people together. He was sincere in motivating and helping young people in academe.

He was responsible for the Consortium on Research Training (CORT), 1973-1976, which supported faculty research competencies. This program promoted the visibility of member colleges and their constituencies. It was funded by the United States Office of Education under the provisions of Title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965. The historically black institutions were participants. Barber-Scotia College, Concord, North Carolina, served as the coordinating institution.

In the School of Education, Tuskegee Institute, Dr. Breathett served as Director of the Seminar in Teaching Problems. This program was funded by the International Paper Company Foundation. It addressed itself to the many complex administrative and instructional problems facing its participants in the world-of-work.

He was past president of the Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists, Inc., and he received that association’s prestigious W. E. B. DuBois Award in 1985. He was instrumental in planning the Association’s 53^rd Annual Meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina in March 1988. Dr. Breathett served on the Editorial Review Board of the ASBS Journal of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

He was a life member of the Executive Council of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History and active with its editorial board and conference program committees. His other affiliations were the American Historical Association, the Catholic Historical Association, the Association of Carribean Historians, the Board of Directors for the Association of Colleges and Universities for International-Intercultural Studies, the Latin American Studies Association, and the Organization of American Historians.

In the religious arena, Dr. Breathett was active in the St. Mary’s Catholic Church where he had served with the Knights of Columbus, lecturer, director of the choir, and Parish Council. He was a member of the St. Mary’s School Board when the school was in operation.

He was a member and past officer of Kappa Lambda Chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

His noted publications are the Catholic Church in Haiti, 1704-1785: Selected Letters, Memoirs, and Documents; Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences; and the Religious Missions in Colonial French Saint Domingue.

Dr. Breathett was a native of Memphis, Tennessee, and an administrator at Bennett College where he had served since 1953. His dedication and contributions were in several capacities, professor and chairperson, social science division; Director, Title III Program sponsored by the United States Department of Education; and Interim Dean.

George Amitheat Breathett was a gentleman, scholar, and humanitarian. "We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. From the book of Romans, Chapter 8.