Colleges

Popular USF professor dies

By KEVIN GRAHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published September 27, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Trevor Purcell had been chairman of USF's Africana studies department since 2000.

TAMPA - University of South Florida professor Trevor Purcell had the kind of smile that could steal any heart, say colleagues who knew him.

"Whenever you met him, you met his smile first," said James Tokley, an adjunct professor in USF's Africana studies department, where Purcell had served as chairman since 2000. "He had a Caribbean sense of humor and a smile that could melt glaciers."

Purcell died this week of undisclosed causes. He was 62.

News of his death spread Tuesday, leaving the campus stunned, said USF president Judy Genshaft in a statement on the school's Web site.

"He was well respected and admired throughout the university," she said. "He was soft-spoken, a great scholar, and he deeply enjoyed his work and most of all, he enjoyed people."

Published reports say Purcell grew up in Jamaica, the son of a sugar cane farmer. A high school dropout, he came to the United States and served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. In 1982, he received a doctorate in social anthropology from Johns Hopkins University.

While at USF, Purcell was integral in helping the school obtain numerous grants, including one for an online program to receive a graduate certificate in Africana studies. He also helped secure money to bring a Fulbright Scholar, an anthropologist from Bangladesh, to campus for a year in 2001.

Purcell had been a college professor since the early 1980s.

"When he got in front of that classroom, he knew what he was about," Tokley said. "He was one of the finest department heads that USF has ever had in any department, at any time."

Tokley said Purcell often talked passionately about creating an Africana studies graduate program at USF that offered master's degrees and doctorates.

"We used to sit in his office, close the door and just talk about life," Tokley said. "Some people are knowledgeable, yet overbearing. They're arrogant. That was never Trevor Purcell."

USF officials say details on a memorial service will be announced later.

Researcher John Martin contributed to this story. Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 26, 2007, 23:46:37]