Dear NEA Members and Friends,

I am writing with deep sorrow to let you know that Dr. Rhonda M. Williams passed away Tuesday, November 7, 2000, at 6:45am.  The University of Maryland will honor Rhonda with a public memorial service to be held Monday, December 4 , 2000, from 3:00pm to 4:15pm, in the Colony Ballroom, Stamp Student Union at the university in College Park, Maryland.  Following the memorial service there will be a reception at the Nyumburu Cultural Center (4:15pm - 6:00pm).  Click here for directions and parking. 

Inquiries about the Rhonda M. Williams Undergraduate Scholarship Fund or about the memorial service should be made to Phyllis Baytop (301.405.8938).

With Saddness,

William E. Spriggs, NEA President

Dr. Rhonda Williams was a brilliant scholar and amazing teacher.  Her field was labor economics and she was the Chair of the Afro American Studies Department at the University of Maryland at College Park.  She fought actively for social justice and an end to oppressions of all kinds, especially oppression based on race, class, sexual orientation, and gender.  Her death is a loss not only to those of us who loved her but really to the world - we are collectively deprived of so much more potential brilliance and Rhonda's special ability to be accessible and crisply articulate, and to cross lines of difference with such integrity, all of which would have been used in service to continue to make the world a more fair and just place.  Luckily for all of us, her work to date will live on.

Contributions should be made out to "Rhonda M. Williams Undergraduate Scholarship Fund" and sent to Rhonda M. Williams Undergraduate Scholarship fund, Afro-American Studies Program, 2169 LeFrak Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD  20742.