HAROLD DELANEY
Scientist
Manhattan Project Researcher, scholar, educator, and collegiate administrative leader in the field of Chemistry.
Delaney graduated from Howard University three times and completed three degrees of higher education there: Bachelor of Science in 1941, Master of Science in Chemistry in 1943, and Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1958.
Harold Delaney was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 24, 1919, Harold Delaney was one of several African American scientists to work on the Manhattan Project in World War II. The eldest child of William and Henriette Delaney, Harold had four sisters, Mildred, Gertrude, Laura, and Ethel, and a brother, William.
Delaney studied chemistry at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and earned his B.S. and M.A. degrees in 1941 and 1943, respectively. In March 1943, Delaney co-authored an article with his graduate adviser, Dr. Robert Percy Barnes, and with Dr. Victor Julius Tulane and Dr. Stewart Rochester Cooper in the Journal of Organic Chemistry, a prestigious peer-reviewed journal. Tulane and Cooper were also faculty members in the Department of Chemistry at Howard University. In November 1943, Delaney published a second article with Barnes in the Journal of the American Chemistry Society, another prestigious peer-reviewed journal. The publication of these two articles completed the requirements for Delaney’s M.A. degree.
After completing his M.A. degree, Delaney worked as a chemist on the Manhattan Project between 1943 and 1945 at the University of Chicago. The Manhattan Project, one of the most important scientific projects of the 20th century, led to the development of the atomic bomb which ended World War II. In 1974 Delaney became the first male president and non-Catholic of Manhattanville College, a women’s college in Purchase, New York. He later served as vice president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities headquartered in Washington, D.C. He retired from that post in 1987. Delaney married Geraldine East, a native of North Carolina, in 1946. East earned a degree from North Carolina A&T where she met Delaney, and later taught in the Baltimore public schools from 1953 until 1968. The couple had two sons, Doyle and Milton.
In Delaney’s later years of his career, he was Interim President of multiple universities for about one year each, including Chicago State University, Frostburg State University, and Bowie State University before retiring from Bowie State in 1993. Along with holding many leadership positions at the university level, Delaney was a member of the American Chemical Society and on the board of the Washington Center.
Delany was married to Geraldine she was born in North Carolina and worked as a special education teacher from 1953 to 1968, and was educated at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.
Dr. Harold Delaney, a retired professor, and college president, and his wife, Geraldine, were found beaten to death on Thursday, August 2, 1994, at a home they owned in Pilot Mountain, N.C. Dr. Delaney, 74, and Mrs. Delaney, 71, also lived in Silver Spring, Md.
THE KILLER WAS FOUND AND WAS SENTENCED TO DEATH
Keith East was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murders of his aunt and uncle: 75-year-old Dr. Harold Delaney, and his wife, Geraldine, 71. According to court documents, Keith East would go to his uncle and aunt’s vacation home where he would beat the elderly couple to death with a baseball bat. Keith East was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death