In Memoriam |
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Wyatt Burghardt “Burg” Turner
Following discharge in 1946, Dr. Turner returned to New York and resumed graduate studies in history, completing his Master’s and all but his doctoral thesis at Columbia University. Although it was difficult to get a job due to the rampant discrimination of the era, Dr. Turner held jobs as a Naval records archivist and Social Security examiner before becoming a teacher. He taught elementary school in Bay Shore, New York, where he was the first African American employed in the school district; junior high in New York City; and high school in Patchogue, where he was one of the first African American teachers in the district. In the late 1960s, Dr. Turner joined the faculty at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. During his twenty year tenure at Stony Brook, he introduced courses in African American history and Native American history in the history department. As one of the first African American faculty members on the campus, he called on the university leadership to acknowledge and rectify the discrimination experienced by minorities in academia and society in general. In this capacity, he chaired Stony Brook’s President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and served as a bridge between the university and community civil rights groups. In 1988, Stony Brook University named its Graduate Diversity Fellowship program after Dr. Turner to recognize his accomplishments and to keep alive his vision of a supportive, integrated community of scholars. Today, the Turner Fellowship Program supports the success of 120 underrepresented Master’s and Ph.D. students enrolled at Stony Brook University. A tireless worker on social issues affecting minorities, Turner helped to found and served as president of the Brookhaven NAACP. He also served as chairperson of the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission and the Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk County. His dedication to promoting a more integrated and diverse society led to recognition by numerous groups, including citations by the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Long Island Minority Educators Association. Professor Turner did not receive his doctorate until 2007, due to some of the very obstacles that the fellowship bearing his name seeks to overcome. In that year, Stony Brook University awarded Burg Turner an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters. Dr. Turner died in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is survived by his wife, Joyce Moore Turner; three children; and five grandchildren. --Nancy Tomes |
On January 11, 2009, Dr. Wyatt Burghardt “Burg” Turner died at the age of ninety-three. As a teenager, Dr. Turner left the household of his parents and five brothers in Jamaica, New York, to care for his grandmother in Richmond, Kentucky, where he finished high school. He went on to Kentucky State College, graduating cum laude in 1939 with honors in history and sociology. Out of college, Turner trained with the African American 92nd (Buffalo) Division at Fort McClellan, Alabama and Fort Huachuca in Arizona. In spite of passing all the tests for officer’s training school and ASTP, he was denied the opportunity for advanced training by his commanding officer, and eventually was deployed to Italy during World War II.