Russell, Randa Davenport
(born: 1921 - died: 2008)Randa D. Russell was the second graduate of the college department at Kentucky State College [now Kentucky State University] to earn a Ph.D. [The first was Sadie Yancey.] Randa D. Russell was a graduate of Central High School in Louisville, KY, and of Kentucky State College with an A.B. degree in education. She earned a bachelor's degree from North Carolina A&T [now North Carolina A&T State University], a master's from the University of Minnesota, and a doctorate (1949) from the University of Michigan. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and a fellow of the American School Health Association (ASHA). She also worked with the World Health Organization (WHO) promoting public health awareness in the Philippines and Taiwan. Randa Russell supported Berea College as a member of the Founders Club and by donating $75,000 to the school endowment.
Randa D. Russell was a professor at Virginia State University and at Spelman University. For 40 years she was a professor in the Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at North Carolina A&T. She retired in 1993, a year after the death of her companion, Eva Doris McKinney, who was a retired professor of physical education at the University of North Carolina. Randa D. Russell died in Cincinnati, OH, in 2008 and is buried in Louisville, KY. She was the daughter of Julia Jones Russell and Harvey C. Russell, Sr. and a sister of Bessie Tucker Russell Stone and Harvey C. Russell, Jr.
For more see "22 faculty/staff members at N.C. A&T retire," News & Record (Greensboro), 06/24/1993, p. 2; "Two Kentucky state graduates...," The Crisis, vol. 57, no. 11 (Dec 1950), p. 736; "Eva Doris Mckinney, physical ed professor," Boston Herald, 06/13/1992, Obituaries section, p. 33; and A. Howard, "Randa Russell, 86, was public health expert," Cincinnati Enquirer, 01/25/2008. See also Russell's dissertation, A Study of the Factors Related to the Teaching of Physical Education in Selected Virginia Elementary Schools.