Samuel Nabrit, 1st Black named to Atomic Energy Commission, dies at 98

Samuel Nabrit, 98, marine biologist, former president of Texas Southern University and the first Black to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission died recently at an Samuel Nabrit Atlanta hospital of complications from a heart attack.

The son of a Baptist preacher, Nabrit was born in Macon, GA. He graduated from Morehouse College and later earned a master's degree and doctorate in biology from Brown University. The first Black to earn a doctorate from Brown, he became the university's first Black trustee.

Nabrit worked as a marine biologist at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA, and was the second Black scientist to become a board member at the facility. While there, he conducted research from 1927 to 1932 on the tailfins offish and his findings were widely published in scientific journals.

In 1932 Nabrit became head of Morehouse's biology department and served 15 years in that post. He left Morehouse for Atlanta University in 1947 to serve as dean of the graduate school of arts and sciences until 1955, when he was named president of Texas Southern University in Houston, a post he held until 1966.

In 1966, President Johnson appointed Nabrit to the Atomic Energy Commission. He was the first Black to hold such a post and remained on the board until 1969. Nabrit also headed the Atlanta-based Southern Fellowship Fund.

He is survived by a sister, Cecelia Nabrit Adkins of Nashville. He was married to the late Constance Crocker. They had no children.