R.I.P. Dr. Asa Grant Hilliard

By Saeed Ahmed The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Dr. Asa G. Hilliard, who as a teacher, psychologist and historian shaped the minds and laid the groundwork for future African-American students, died Sunday while on a trip to Egypt. He was 73.

Since 1980, Dr. Hilliard was the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University. He died two days before classes were to begin at the university.


Asa Hilliard, Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University, died two days before classes were to begin at the university.

Dr. Hilliard reportedly died from malaria. "We're not sure officially that it was malaria, but we believe he had contracted it in Ghana," said Andria Simmons, a spokeswoman for Georgia State. "They haven't done an autopsy to say for sure."
Dr. Hilliard was in Egypt with a group of students, but they weren't from Georgia State, Simmons said.

He frequently conducted annual study tours to Egypt to show its connection to the rest of Africa and its impact on the world.

State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) described Dr. Hilliard as an intellectual who was as comfortable at a working man's kitchen table as in the classroom or an academic's salon.
"He was very down-to-earth," Mr. Fort said. "He was not a scholar who looked down on people."

Reared in Texas and Colorado by parents who divorced when he was a youngster, Dr. Hilliard grew up the oldest of eight children. His late father was a high school principal. His mother is a Pentecostal minister.

Dr. Hilliard and his wife, former East Point Mayor Patsy Jo Hilliard, lived in an upper-middle-class neighborhood near Washington Street since they relocated to the state more than 20 years ago. They have four children and seven grandchildren.

Dr. Hilliard often was called upon by school districts, public advocacy organizations, government agencies and private businesses to validate testing, advise on African content in curricula and identify biases for training programs.

He served as an expert witness in several cases that have resulted in the elimination of admissions tests as the sole criterion for college admission and led to the revamping of achievement testing.

Dr. Hilliard wrote more than 200 research reports, books and articles on testing, ancient African history, teaching strategies, African culture and child growth and development.
He was a founding member of the National Black Child Development Institute and the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations.

Before joining the GSU faculty, Dr. Hilliard spent 18 years at San Francisco State University. He was chairman of the secondary education department, dean of education and a consultant to the Peace Corps.

Dr. Hilliard earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in counseling from the University of Denver, where he also taught in the College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences. He received a doctorate in educational psychology there, as well.

Rest In Peace Dr. Hilliard and Godspeed.

Posted in: R.I.P.