Happy Birthday Dr. Howard Naylor Fitzhugh,

born October 31, 1909, Washington, D.C.

TO: Mrs. Alexis Edwards, Ed Bryant, Felicia Coleman, Dr. Ido Jamar, Richard Fitzhugh, Lillian Lincoln-Lambert, Maurice Cox, Kim Robinson-Corbin, Dr. Naylor Fitzhugh II, Stephanie Capparell, Dr. Thomas Sewell, Dr. James Cash, Professor David Thomas, Drunia Duviviere, Ron C. Parker, Ray Pellachia, Harvard Business School Archives, Jet Magazine and several others who provided information, motivation and support in some fashion.

In February of 1993 my fiancée Alexis and I traveled to Harvard Business School to visit Ed and Felicia Bryant.  He was my best man and she was helping with wedding plans.  Leaving Florida for a short trip to Boston in February I saw no need to pack a t-shirt.  But when an offer came to work out in Shadd hall I accepted and Ed had to give me a t-shirt.  Little did I know the significance and impact that shirt would have on my life.  The t-shirt was from the 1993 21^st Annual Career/Alumni conference of the Harvard Business School African American Student Union dedicated to H. Naylor Fitzhugh.

I asked Ed who was Fitzhugh?  He said he was “the first black graduate of Harvard Business School”.  (although I later discovered that not to be true) I tried to research him and didn’t find much.  Google was not effective in 1993.  As time passed, I would encounter little things that would offer insights into his life.  And the more I learned, the more I wondered why he was not widely known.  An article on black education I came across while doing research on The Wright Brothers (friends of Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s) outlined the rich history of Dunbar High in D.C. - the school that Fitzhugh graduated from.  Studies of the founding fathers revealed a link from George Washington to the black William Syphax who founded M Street Academy, which became Dunbar High.  Then three things happened that compelled me to dig deeper for this story, I don’t recall the exact order.  I discovered that the HBS centennial was also the 75^th Anniversary of Fitzhugh’s graduation.  And I picked up a book by Stephanie Capparell called the Real Pepsi Challenge on a trip to a wedding which happened to be White Plains, New York (blocks from Pepsico Headquarters, where Fitzhugh once worked).  I read the book in one weekend and loved it.  Then I realized that little was being done to celebrate the occasion of his MBA anniversary and that the centennial of his birth was approaching.  Somewhere in there I made contact with Fitzhugh’s daughter, Dr. Ido Jamar who shared warm stories of her dad’s life and referred me to her brothers.  Then I also spoke to Richard and he shared more stories.

Richard paid me the greatest compliment I could receive when he said that I was “telling them things about their father that they didn’t know”.  There is still much to discover.  But through current research I have assembled a growing collection of biographical facts that, pieced together, tell a story of a GREAT American who developed “niche marketing” yet was a victim of it.  A victim because his story has only been shared with a small niche of highly-educated black achievers who arguably don’t need it for motivation: Harvard, Executive leadership Council, the Black MBA Association and recently Howard University Business School.  But his story has hope and inspiration for the inner city schools, Black colleges, educators, minorities, families, community servants and anyone searching for the meaning of success.  He was a scholar, mentor, family man, business man, innovator, and community servant…

Ed, thank you for the T-shirt.  I am still married and I still have the shirt.  I sincerely thank you all for your encouragement and as I move forward to mass market his fascinating story to those who need it most, I hope I can continue to rely on it.

My wish list for his birthday is:

A stamp, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity posthumous induction; NAACP and Urban League recognition; Scholarship and youth development program modeled after an expanded Learn and Earn; publish a biography illustrated by Richard Fitzhugh and foreword by Lillian Lincoln Lambert, and finally, in his honor, CHANGE HALLOWEEN to (dress up like a) ROLE MODEL DAY where youth research a role model and dress and act like them for the day instead of ghost and monsters.

Karriem Edwards, Fitzhugh Scholar

Tenzing Innovations, Inc.

May God grant you the strength to keep climbing your Everest or the faith to move it.