He lived with his grandmother Mammy Lee Hunter, aunt Irene Jones and cousins in the Cherry (Charlotte neighborhood) where he attended Morgan School from 1st to 8th grade.
After graduating with honors from Second Ward High School in 1951, he attended Johnson C. Smith University the following September where he received a fifty dollar scholarship for two years.
His first job offer was at a school in Zebulon, North Carolina but after an opening for a math teacher became available at Carver College he took that instead.
As Vice-Chairman of the Southeastern section of the Mathematical Association of America, he was instrumental in desegregating the activities of the MAA.
He later joined the Central Piedmont administration; on his retirement in 1995, he was Dean of Arts and Sciences and Vice President of General Studies.