Because of my work on the Black Alumni Memorial Book, it appears that I have garnered a great deal of information that, apparently, I am intended to share. This mandate to share was recently made clear when I happened to read the Class Note for the Class of 1962 in the Summer of 2026 Amherst magazine. The 1962 Class Note has some information from Fred Gregory. It is set forth below and is followed by information which apparently I am now intended to share.
I hope you will enjoy it.
Peace,
Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Class of 1975
August 9, 2026
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"Fred Gregory has three grandkids who went to the United States Air Force Academy and another in AFROTC at the University of South Carolina. Furthermore, his 14-year-old granddaughter is a top swimmer whom he hopes in a few years the Air Force Academy will recruit. Finally, as if to lock in the Gregory family's record of service, yet another grandkid joined the Army Special Forces. Fred is still in demand for presentations but reports also becoming a self-appointed family genealogist. Some findings: 1) His ancestor and ninth great-grandfather John Alden was on the Mayflower as the cooper. A descendant and Fred's uncle was Dr. Charles Drew, class of 1926. 2) In another line, Fred's fourth great-granddad Sterling Claiborne was freed by the man who enslaved him, Butler Claiborne, because of his bravery and loyalty during the Revolutionary War. Sterling's descendant and Fred's grandfather was James Francis Gregory 1898. Fred also has in his lineage a U.s president, a vice president, and a framer of the Declaration of Independence."
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Fred Gregory, Class of 1962, left Amherst in 1960 to matriculate at the United States Air Force Academy. He graduated from the Academy in 1964. Fred was the first African American to pilot a Space Shuttle in 1985 and later became the first Black shuttle commander. Fred was selected in NASA’s 1978 astronaut class and later became NASA’s first African American Deputy Administrator, also serving briefly as Acting Administrator in 2005. As AI notes,
NASA’s
Astronaut Group 8, announced on January 16, 1978, was the first new astronaut class since 1969 and the first to include African Americans, women, and Asian Americans
Wikipedia+1. Of the 35 selected,
three were African American:
Fred's grandfather, James Francis Gregory, Class of 1898, was captain of the Amherst College baseball team in 1898, the first African American to be elected captain of a baseball team in any eastern college and became a Presbyterian minister and vice-principal at the Bordentown School in New Jersey. It is James whose presence is quite noticeable in the photos of the Amherst College 1898 baseball team that adorns the archives exhibits.
Fred's uncle, Charles Drew, is arguably the most famous African American graduate of Amherst College. His work on developing blood storage systems was a great advance for medicine. As noted by AI:
Drew’s groundbreaking work focused on blood transfusions and the preservation of blood plasma. He discovered that plasma could be stored longer than whole blood and developed methods to process and store large quantities efficiently. During World War II, he organized and directed the Blood for Britain project and the U.S. blood-plasma programs, saving thousands of lives. He also protested racial segregation in blood donation, resigning from the American Red Cross when it enforced discriminatory policies
Chsrles Drew's sister, Nora Drew Gregory, is Fred Gregory's mother. Nora Drew Gregory was a major recruiter of black students for Amherst College in the 1950s. As noted in "Remembering Dunbar"
In 1946, Eugene Wilson (class of 1929) became the college’s dean of admission, a posi-
tion he held until his retirement in 1972. A 1971 interview in the Amherst Student noted that
Wilson ultimately “reversed the percentages of public and private school graduates of the
college.”56 Under Wilson’s leadership, Amherst admission deans made efforts to diversify
incoming classes, including organizing frequent trips down to Washington, DC, to meet
with Dunbar students in person.
Amherst faced competition from rivaling northern colleges for the best and brightest
Dunbar seniors. Williams College, near Amherst, had its own history of recruiting Dunbar
men going back to the early twentieth century, with about fifteen Dunbar students enroll-
ing between 1909 and 1944. In response, Wilson sought out local leaders in the black DC
community who could identify talented young men who might be a good fit for Amherst.
Wilson strategically collaborated with the Drew family that embodied Dunbar’s con-
nection with Amherst. Nora Drew Gregory, Charles Drew’s sister, served as a liaison
between Amherst and the black Washington community. After her brother died in an
automobile accident in 1950, Gregory diligently promoted his alma mater.
Before his senior year at Dunbar in 1953, Harold Haizlip (class of 1957) simply remem-
bered Nora Drew Gregory as his elementary school teacher. However, in Haizlip’s senior
year, Harvard, Yale, Williams, Amherst, and Dartmouth all accepted him. Gregory per-
sistently advocated for Amherst to be his top choice. Haizlip recalled that she invited him
to her home: “[There was a] very nice white gentlemen Eugene Wilson . . . the dean of
admission! . . . This was at a time when it was unusual for college administrators, and
white college administrators, to be so aggressive. . . . I’m sure they knew Nora Gregory’s
lineage. . . . Her son . . . became the first African- American astronaut, Frederick Gregory.” 60
After Haizlip, Amherst recruited a cohort of three Dunbar seniors for the class of 1959,
who happened to also be neighborhood friends: Lawrence Burwell, Robert Jason, and
Raymond Hayes. Hayes remembered that “we were all interested in science and medicine
and were encouraged by the opportunity to attend Amherst together.” 61 Both Hayes and
Jason received $700 each through an Amherst College scholarship, while Burwell received
$500.62 These were all relatively significant contributions at the time. Annual tuition at
Amherst was $1,425 during the 1955 to 1956 school year. 63
