Christopher F. Edley, 75, former UNCF president, dies in New Rochelle, NY

Jet, May 26, 2003

Christopher Fairfield Edley, who served as president of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), recently died of a heart attack at his home in New Rochelle, NY. He was 75 years old.

He served as president of UNCF from 1973 to 1990. Edley used the UNCF's trademark slogan, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste," to raise more than $700 million to help students bound for historically Black colleges.

In 1979, he started the fund's yearly telethon, enlisting singer Lou Rawls as host. The telethon has raised more than $100 million. It is the only national telethon for higher education.

During Edley's tenure as head of the UNCF, the organization, which was founded in 1944, received its biggest donation, a $50 million grant from publishing magnate Walter H. Annenberg in 1990. It is also believed to have been the largest single gift ever in Black philanthropy.

Born in Charleston, WV, Edley graduated magna cum laude from Howard University in 1949, then became one of two or three Black students enrolled at Harvard Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1953.

He eventually moved to Philadelphia where he became a prominent prosecutor and later a civil rights lawyer. He also was active on the city's Human Rights Commission.

He also worked for the United States Commission on Civil Rights and later joined the Ford Foundation in 1963, where he was the organization's first Black program officer.

In 1973, he succeeded Vernon Jordan as president of the United Negro College Fund.

Edley was succeeded in 1991 by UNCF's current president, William H. Gray III.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Zaida Coles Edley; a son, Christopher Edley Jr., a Harvard law professor; a daughter, Judith C. Edley of Hartford, CT; a sister, Joyce Dean of Lynchburg, VA; and three grandchildren.