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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Dr. James E. Cheek
DR. JAMES CHEEK
Awarded by
President Ronald Reagan
February 23, 1983
As the president of one of our country's greatest institutions of higher learning, and as an outstanding black American scholar, James Cheek embodies the spirit of excellence in education. Dr. Cheek's distinguished career and community work are impressive testimony to his commitment to his calling and his country. His efforts have helped to build a better life for black Americans and a better country for us all.
Biography
James Edward Cheek, president emeritus of Howard University, was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, on December 4, 1932. Despite severe eye cataracts, Cheek was an honor student Washington Street Grammar School. He graduated from Immanuel Lutheran College with a secondary diploma in 1950 and served as a member of the United States Air Force in Korea in 1951. Earning a B.A. in sociology and history from Shaw University in 1955, Cheek received a master's of divinity from Colgate Rochester University in 1958 and a Ph.D. from Drew University in 1962. During this period he was honored with a Colgate Rochester Fellowship, a Rockefeller Doctoral Fellowship and a Lily Foundation Fellowship.
Cheek was a professor of New Testament Theology at Virginia Union University when he was named president of Shaw University in 1963, at the age of thirty. In 1968, he was appointed president of Howard University. During Cheek's twenty-year tenure at Howard, the student population increased by 3,500 and the number of schools, colleges, research programs, full-time faculty and Ph.D. programs increased dramatically. Howard's budget increased from $43 million to $417 million as the federal appropriation went from $29 million to $178 million. He was named Washingtonian of the Year in 1980 and in 1983, while still serving as president of Howard, Cheek was awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The recipient of hundreds of awards and nineteen honorary degrees, Cheek serves or has served as a board member of several colleges and universities including the University of Miami, Drew University, Colgate Rochester University, New York Institute of Technology, Benedict College, Florida Memorial College, Fisk University and Howard University. His presidential appointments include the Board of Foreign Scholarships, National Advisory Council to the Peace Corps, UNESCO, Commission on Selection of White House Fellows and the President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Cheek and his wife, Cellestine, are parents of a son and a daughter and have two grandchildren. They reside in Greensboro, North Carolina. Howard University
Based in Washington, D.C., Howard University was founded as a theological seminary to train African American clergymen in 1867. Guided by the motto “Veritas Et Utilitas” or “Truth And Service,” the university was charged with the task of providing an education for newly emancipated slaves. A mainstay within the network of historic black universities, Howard University graduates have achieved notoriety in many facets of American life, including playwright Amiri Baraka and former Illinois State Attorney General Hon. Roland Burris.
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Medal History
