Notable Pharmacists to Celebrate During Black History Month

(from L to R)
Hewitt W. (“Ted”) Matthews, Ph.D., became the second African American graduate of the Mercer’s Southern School of Pharmacy (1968) in Atlanta, Georgia and the first African American to serve both as its Dean of the College of Pharmacy (1990-2017) and Senior Vice President of the Mercer Health Science Center.

Ira C. Robinson, Ph.D., the first African American pharmacist to earn his Ph.D. at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy and became the youngest Dean of a College of Pharmacy when appointed at Florida A&M University in 1969.

Roy C. Darlington, Ph.D., the first African American pharmacists to earn the Ph.D. in the Pharmaceutical Sciences at Ohio State University College of Pharmacy in 1947.

Marie L. Best, Ph.D., became the first African American female to serve as Acting Dean of a College of Pharmacy when she was appointed to the position at Howard University College of Pharmacy in 1975.

Clyde Hatch, 35th President of the National Pharmaceutical Association (NPhA). Past President  and member of the Central Los Angeles Pharmaceutical Association and Los Angeles Pharmaceutical Society. 

Rosalyn Cain-King, Pharm.D., became first African American pharmacist hired as a staff member of the American Pharmacists Association (formerly the American Pharmaceutical Association) in 1969.

Ramona McCarthy- Hawkins, one of the first African American female pharmacists to serve in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) new drug application (NDA) division in 1963. In 1966, she became the first known African American female pharmacist to serve as a patent examiner on pharmaceuticals at the U.S. Patent Office.

Mary Munson Runge, in 1979 became the first woman and African American, to be elected President and Chair of the Board of Directors, in the 126-year history of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA).

Patrick Wells, Ph.D., former Dean of the Texas Southern University College of Pharmacy, elected Grand Ritualist (1963) of Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity, the oldest pharmacy fraternity in America (1879). He achieved top level recognition when he was elected to the position of Grand Regent of Kappa Psi in 1983.