After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in Shreveport in 1951, he enlisted in the United States Air Force, in which he served three years.
He graduated magna cum laude from Grambling State University in 1959, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and secondary education.
[1] Nelson received a Fulbright Lectureship and served as department chair, assistant dean of academic affairs, and vice president for research at Prairie View A&M University.
From 1986 to March 1992, he was the first African American to serve as chancellor of the Alamo Community College District, San Antonio, Texas.
[1] Nelson next served as the twelfth president of Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, from August 15, 1999, to November 2011, when he retired.