Nancy Merritt Boykin

NANCY M. BOYKIN, former Director of Continuing Education for Girls for the Detroit Public Schools died on January 28, 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland. She was 86 years old. Mrs. Boykin, born Nancy Gertrude Merritt on March 20, 1919 in Washington, D.C., had a varied career before joining the Detroit Public School system in 1966. During World War II she worked as an Employee Relations Counselor for the Department of the Army, before becoming the Administrative Assistant to the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of Defense, an important position for an African American in those days. When the war ended, so did this job. Finding no comparable position for an African American woman in the late 1940s, Mrs. Boykin became one of the first policewomen of her race in Washington, D.C. Because female police officers who were assigned to the Women’s Bureau performed largely social service tasks, Mrs. Boykin subsequently took a job with the Department of Public Welfare as a Social Worker.A pioneer in providing comprehensive high school education for pregnant teens, she was a charter member of the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy & Parenting. From 1978-1984 she served on the Michigan State Board of Examiners of Social Workers. Mrs. Boykin retired in 1988. Subsequently the Detroit Public School System named the Nancy Boykin Continuing Education Center in her honor.Upon her marriage to newspaper man and publicist, Ulysses Boykin, in 1965, Mrs. Boykin became an active member of the Michigan Republican Party. She was a member of the Republican State Committee from 1975-1981 and a Presidential Elector from the First Congressional District in 1976. In 1982 she ran an unsuccessful campaign as the Republican candidate for the Wayne State University Board of Governors. In 1973 Mrs. Boykin was appointed by President Richard Nixon to the National Advisory Council on Extension and Continuing Education, she was reappointed to the Council by President Ford and served on that commission until 1980. In 1984 President Ronald Regan appointed her to a three year term on the Advisory Board of the Community College of the Air Force. Mrs. Boykin earned a B.S. degree from Minor Teacher’s College (now the University of the District of Columbia) and two master’s degrees from Howard University. After moving to Detroit she earned a Ph.D. in education administration from the University of Michigan. Mrs. Boykin was a life member of the NAACP. She also belonged to many other organizations including the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.Mr. Boykin died in 1987. Two earlier marriages ended in divorce. Mrs. Boykin is survived by a daughter, Taunya Lovell Banks of Baltimore, Maryland, a stepson, Judge Ulysses Boykin of Detroit Michigan, and three grandchildren, Dr. Rachel Banks of Charlotte, North Carolina, Jonathan Banks of Washington, D.C. and Peter Boykin of Detroit, Michigan and a sister, Emily M. Smothers of Washington D.C.Funeral service and burial will be in Detroit, Michigan. In lieu of flower the family asks that donations be made in Mrs. Boykin’s name to the scholarship fund at the Nancy Boykin Continuing Education Center in Detroit, Michigan.

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Nancy Merritt Boykin

March 20, 1919 - January 28, 2006