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Dr. Luna I. Mishoe

{{Infobox academic | name = {{{Dr. Luna I. Mishoe}}} | image = [[File:{{{Dr Luna I Mishoe.jpg}}} | birth_date = {{{Jan. 5, 1917}}} | birth_place = {{{Bucksport, S.C.}}} | death_date = {{{Jan. 16, 1989, age 72}}} | death_place = {{{Dover, Del.}}} | occupation = {{{President of Delaware State College (now University)}}} | period = {{{1960-1987}}} }}

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Dr. Luna I. Mishoe was the seventh president of Delaware State College (now Delaware State University, the State of Delaware's only Historically Black Institution of Higher Education. During his tenure, the institution experienced its greatest growth in academics, enrollment and physical infrastructures of any of the institution's presidential tenures from its establishment in 1891 to present (2022). In addition to his career in academia – which included his nationally recognized status as a mathematician – Mishoe served as a Tuskegee Airman during World War II.

Early biography and education

Born on Jan. 5, 1917 in Bucksport, S.C., Mishoe later earned a 1938 Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics and Chemistry from Allen University in Columbia in 1938, S.C., a Master pf Science Degree in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Michigan in 1942, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from New York University in 1953, making him the 17th African American to earn a Ph.D. in Mathematics (New York University). He did his post-doctoral research at the University of Oxford in England. During World War II as a 1st Lt. in the U.S. Army, Mishoe was one of the documented original Tuskegee Airman serving as a photographic intelligence and communications officer.
During his military service, Mishoe married Hattie B. Dabney, a native of Little Plymouth, Va., on Feb. 18, 1944. Their lifelong union produced four children – Bernellyn (Carey), Luna I. Mishoe II, (Dr.) Wilma Mishoe, and (Rev.) Rita (Paige). The couple also raised a nephew, Henry Mishoe.

Mishoe was first introduced to DSC when he taught physics and mathematics there from 1946-48. He also taught physics at Kittrell College in North Carolina as well as at Morgan State College (now University) prior to his arrival to DSC in 1960. At Morgan State College, Dr. Mishoe served as the chair of the Division of Natural Sciences.

During Morgan State's summer recesses, Dr. Mishoe conducted research at the Aberdeen Proving Ground Ballistics Research Laboratory between 1952-1957 and served as a research consultant from 1957-1960, both in the connection with the early years of the U.S. Space Program. In those capacities, Dr. Mishoe contributed mathematical equations for missile launches and satellites. After Dr. Mishoe published his 1953 Ph.D. dissertation entitled On the Expansion of an Arbitrary Function in Terms of Eigen-Functions of a Non-Selfadjoint Differential System, he went on to publish four other eigenfunctions-related research publications in the 1950s, and later in 1962 he compiled all over those research works in one publication entitled Fourier series and Eigenfunction Equations Associated with a Non-Selfadjoint Differential Equations.

His Delaware State College tenure (1960-1987)

Delaware State College's Board of Trustees hired Dr. Mishoe as the institution's seventh president in fall of 1960. Dr. Mishoe succeeded Dr. Jerome H. Holland (1953-1960) whose pivotal presidency navigated the College through it most challenging decade in the 1950s, in which the institution faced possible closure after losing its accreditation in 1949. Dr. Holland's critical leadership led to DSC's reaccreditation in 1957 and a greatly improved relationship between the institution and state government, placing Dr. Mishoe in the best position to preside over the College than any of his previous six presidential predecessors.

Effectively building upon the remarkable institutional turnabout that took place under Dr. Holland, the Mishoe Administration further expanded DSC's physical infrastructure, improved the quality and quantity of the academic offerings and faculty, as well as experienced a significant increase in student enrollment. Dr. Mishoe's 27-year tenure as the DSC president would be the second-longest in the history of the institution (as of 2022, in its 131st year of existence), surpassed only by Past President William C. Jason (1895-1923) by one year.

Significantly improved financial support from the State of Delaware especially in the area of new construction funding led to an unprecedented transformation of the College's physical infrastructure landscape during Dr. Mishoe's tenure. This included the construction of 10 new buildings – including three residential facilities, five academic buildings (which included that College's first-ever Science Building, completed in 1964), a six-story library, and a student center – as well as a new football/track stadium, and renovations/additions to some of the existing buildings.
Dr. Mishoe inherited a student enrollment of 386 students in the fall of 1960. By 1969, the student enrollment was just under 1,100 and the College exceeded 2,000 by 1973. In 1986, the beginning of Dr. Mishoe's final academic year, DSC's enrollment increased to 2,327. In addition, the virtually all-black HBCU that existed in 1960 was transformed by 1987 into a truly diverse state institution of higher education (54% black, 43% white and 3% international).

Academically, it was during Dr. Mishoe's tenure that DSC increased its bachelor degree offerings from 18 to 70, which included a bachelor of science degree in Nursing and the beginnings of a Aviation Program. During that tenure, the College also established its first three master's degree programs – Education, Business Administration and Social Work. With the growth in academic programs and enrollment during that 27-year period, the faculty size grew correspondingly from 33 in 1960 to more than four times that (144) by 1986.

It was during the Mishoe tenure that the Delaware State College became a geographical part of the City of Dover (state capital). Originally located two miles north of the state capital, that changed in 1969 when the city approved an annexation that encompassed 90 percent of the College's campus (today the entire campus of Delaware State University is within the city limits).

Under Dr. Mishoe's leadership, DSC moved its Athletics Program from the NCAA Division II to Division I. It also ended its 25-year membership in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and moved DSC to the then-new Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in 1971. As one of the founding presidents and a member of the conference's Executive Committee, Dr. Mishoe was inducted in the MEAC Hall of Fame in 1981.

Dr. Mishoe's tenure also included its share of challenges. Although the Delaware General Assembly (state legislature) provided new construction funding on a more consistent basis, its financial support of the College's operating budget continued to lag greatly behind that which the state provided its other two institutions of higher education – the University of Delaware and Delaware Technical and Community College.

His first decade as DSC president also coincided with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Dr. Mishoe had to balance his efforts to maintain good relations with state government while at the same time respect DSC students' 1st Amendment rights in involving themselves in local demonstrations. Such a balance was sorely tested in May 1968 when student unrest at DSC prompted then-Delaware Gov. Charles Terry to send the Delaware National Guard to the campus where they remained through much of the ensuing summer.

Those challenges notwithstanding, Dr. Mishoe's tenure was highly successful, evidenced by the tremendous growth of Delaware State College over that 27-year period.

In another first at Delaware State College (and University), Dr. Mishoe became the only permanent president to also be appointed to the College’s Board of Trustees, serving as a governor’s appointee from 1977-1987. He was also appointed to the Board of Trustees of the University of Delaware, serving from 1969-1982.

Dr. Mishoe ended his DSC presidential tenure with his retirement on June 30, 1987.

African Methodist Episcopal Church affiliation

Dr. Mishoe was affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church throughout his whole life, beginning with his initial membership at age 12 at the St. John AME Church in Marion S.C. As an adult, he would serve as a member of the Board of Trustees of St. John AME Church in Baltimore, Md., and as a consultant to the Board of Trustees of Mt. Zion AME Church of Dover, Del., where he was a member of both churches. In 1964, Dr. Mishoe was elected to the Judicial Council, the highest judiciary board of the worldwide (Connectional) AME Church, and was subsequently re-elected five more times (twice elected as that body's president) and served in that capacity until his passing.

Post-DSC years

After his 1987 retirement, Dr. Mishoe passed away on Jan. 16, 1989 after two-year battle with colon cancer.
The original Science Center Building built in 1964 under his leadership and the subsequent building addition completed in 1995 became one structure and was named the Mishoe Science Center in his honor. Dr. Mishoe was also posthumously inducted in the DSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.

His daughter Dr. Wilma Mishoe was appointed to the DSU Board of Trustees in 2015 and in 2017 became the first female to serve as the chairperson of that governing body. That chair responsibility lasted only a few months, however, as the resignation of University President Harry L. Williams prompted the Board to appoint Dr. Mishoe as the acting president beginning in January 2018 and then six months later as the permanent president (2018-2019). It was one of the rare cases in the history of American higher education that a father and a daughter served separate presidential tenures at the same institution.