Dr. Sybil Mobley, founder of FAMU’s business school, dies

(NNPA) – Dr. Sybil Mobley, the founder of Florida A&M University’s renowned business school, passed away in Tallahassee early Tuesday morning.

Mobley began her career at FAMU in 1963. At that time, the university did not have a business school. In 1974, she founded the School of Business and Industry. In 2007, the building for the department was named in her honor.

Mobley

Mobley earned her B.A. from Bishop College and, in 1961, became the first African American to earn an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She then earned a Ph.D. in Accounting from the University of Illinois in 1963, becoming the first African-American woman to do so at the institution. She received honorary degrees from Hamilton College, Washington University in St. Louis, Princeton University and her three alma maters: Bishop College, Wharton School and University of Illinois.

She also served on the Board of Directors for such esteemed companies as Sears, Roebuck & Co., Anheuser-Busch, Hershey Foods and Morgan Stanley DeanWitter. She also served as a consultant for United States Agency of International Development (USAID).

This article originally published in the October 5, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.