Biography:

Educator, diplomat. Born– Apr. 3, 1918, in Montgomery. Parents– Harry Saunders and Josephine (Dibble) Murphy. Married– Hugh H. Smythe in 1939 (died 1977). Children– One. Married– Robert Haithe, Jr. Education– attended Spelman College, 1933-36; Mount Holyoke College, A.B. 1937; Northwestern University, M.A., 1940; University of Wisconsin, Ph.D. 1942; further study at New York University. Taught at Lincoln University, 1942-1945; Tennessee A & I State College, 1945-1946; Brooklyn College, 1946-1947; Shiga University (Japan), 1951-1953; City College of City University of New York, 1959-1960; free-lance writer, 1948-1951; high school teacher principal, New York City, 1954-1959; vice-president for research and publications, Phelps-Stokes Fund, New York City, 1969-1977;  U.S. ambassador to Cameroon, 1977-1980. Member– U.S. Advisory Commission on Educational Exchange and Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. National Commission on UNESCO; board of trustees Mount Holyoke College; Urban League of Greater New York.  Awarded the Mary McLeod Bethune Women of Achivement Award, 1981; the National Coalition of 100 Black Women Award, 1984; the U.S.Information Agency Information Service Award, 1986. Died February 7, 2006.

Source:

Contemporary Authors, vols. online; Obituary, Boston Globe, January 14, 2007.

Publication(s):

Curriculum for Understanding. S.l.; Union Free School District 13, 1965.

Some Directions in Afro-American Research. Atlanta, Ga.; Atlanta University, 1971.

Joint_Publication(s):

New Nigerian Elite. Palo Alto, Calif.; Stanford University Press, 1960.

Editor:

The Black American Reference Book. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; Prentice-Hall, 1976.

Papers;

The papers of Mabel M. Smythe-Haithe are held by the Library of Congress.