ALUMNI NEWS
The university is named for the fourth U.S. president, one of the nation’s founders and chief architect of the Con- stitution. James Madison also enslaved people of African descent during his lifetime in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. Dr. Alexander Gabbin is one of the founders of the National Black MBA Association. Today, he is a KPMG professor and director of the School of Accounting at James Madison Univer- sity (JMU). He grew up in a working- class neighborhood in East Baltimore and went on to graduate from Howard University with a degree in economics and mathematics. After graduating in 1967, he married Joanne V. Gabbin, who is now an English professor at JMU. Dr. Gabbin was working a job he had no passion for when his fraternity brother, Milam Fitts, encouraged him to join him in business school at the University of Chicago. He applied and was accepted. The Black MBA students would discuss the need for a conference that would address issues that concerned them. In 1969, Tony Jackson and George Brad- shaw began to make plans for a confer- ence for Black MBAs and asked Dr. Gabbin to be the budget director. He took them up on their offer. With the help of Dean Harold Metcalf, they were able to spread the word to other MBA programs. The participating programs agreed to send two delegates from each program to attend. Dixie Moon of the Metropolitan Applied Research Cen- ter gave $10,000 in support of their $13,000 budget. The two-day confer- ence was a success. Dr. Gabbin’s life experiences moti- vated him to organize with other MBA students. He was an avid reader, coming of age in an era where racism was bla- tant. While he respected Martin Luther King, Jr’s perspective, he was more drawn to Malcolm X’s radical teachings of self-resilience. “I knew I was just one of those black men who was fortunate… and I had the responsibility to lever- age my good fortune into an effort that would ultimately help my people,” he
What had been Maury Hall, honoring a Confederate naval officer, is now Gabbin Hall.
says. Dr. Gabbin has never shied away from working his corner. Our time is limited, so we must do what we can to inspire while we are alive and well.
“Life is something you don’t play with; you treat each day seriously because you don’t know when you will get another one.”
– Dr. Alexander Gabbin
34 | WINTER 2020-SPRING 2021 ♦ THE JOURNAL
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