In this photo from 1968, Dr. Lancelot C.A. Thompson had just become The University of Toledo’s first vice president for student affairs, a position he held for two decades and one of many milestones in the chemistry professor’s trailblazing career at the University. In 1958, Thompson became the first African American full-time faculty member at the University, and also was the first Black faculty member to receive tenure. He went on to become the first African American vice president.
Thompson was dedicated to students as a classroom teacher, receiving one of the University’s first Outstanding Teacher Awards, and as an administrator, helping to organize UToledo’s annual Aspiring Minorities Youth Conference, which continues to this day.
Thompson was professor emeritus of chemistry when he died Sept. 10, 2016, at the age of 91. Less than two months later, on Nov. 7, the student union was renamed the Lancelot Thompson Student Union in his honor. The Dr. Lancelot Thompson Student Activities and Diversity Fund to support programming to benefit the student experience and advance the University’s diversity initiatives also was created.
