Norvel Smith, 80; First Black Named a UC Vice Chancellor

Norvel Smith, a pioneering educator who was the first African American to head a college in California and the first to serve as vice chancellor of a University of California campus, has died. He was 80.

Smith, who headed Merritt College in Oakland and later served as vice chancellor for student services at UC Berkeley, died of a cancerous brain tumor Saturday at his Oakland home, said his wife, Mary. He was diagnosed with the tumor in September.

A native of Lynchburg, Va., Smith was born Aug. 31, 1924, and grew up in south Philadelphia. During World War II, he served in the Army’s all-black 92nd Infantry Division in Italy. After the war, using the benefits of the GI Bill, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration.

Smith began his career as an educator at Texas Southern University in Houston, where he taught in the business department. He also met his future wife, Mary Perry, while at Texas Southern. The couple moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1951, and Smith earned his doctorate in educational administration at UC Berkeley in 1956.

In the 1960s, he worked as director of Oakland’s department of human resources and later as deputy director of the city’s Office of Economic Opportunity. In that capacity, he helped establish four outreach centers in the city that offered health and probation counseling, among other things. The centers also served as gathering places where community activists could meet and deal with specific issues facing their areas.

“He was in the community night after night helping them come to agreements on common goals,” his wife told The Times on Thursday.

In 1967, Smith was named president of Merritt College, becoming the first African American president of an institution of higher education in the state.

During Smith’s tenure, Merritt’s enrollment increased steadily and the college moved to a new campus in the Oakland hills. He initiated a black studies curriculum -- again the first such program at a California college or university. He also began to diversify the college’s faculty and staff, which had been mostly white while serving a student population that was more than 40% black.

Smith also secured funding for a child care facility for students and faculty. It is believed to be the first such program at a California college. He also helped initiate a transfer program in which students could take courses at UC Berkeley.

In 1973, Smith was named vice chancellor for student services at UC Berkeley. In that capacity, he managed a complex array of services for an expanding student population. Those services included housing, dining, admissions, job placement, health services and financial aid. During his time as vice chancellor, the school launched its first Student Learning Center tutoring program, which is still in operation.

Active in community affairs, Smith served on the boards of directors of such organizations as the College Entrance Examination Board, Oakland Museum Assn., ACLU of Northern California and Monterey Institute of International Studies. He also was involved for several years with an education program for black inmates at San Quentin State Prison.

Smith began taking cello lessons after he retired from UC Berkeley in 1982 at age 58 and played regularly with the Oakland Community Orchestra. He later returned to Merritt College, this time as a student, to learn Italian.

His wife, his only survivor, had a long career as a teacher in the Oakland school system, and co-founded the Mathematics Engineering Sciences Achievement Program.