In Memoriam: Sharon Tolbert-Glover, 1940-2018

Sharon Tolbert-Glover, a longtime advocate for education in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, has passed away at the age of 78.

When Tolbert-Glover was only 15 years old, she became a nun at the convent of the Servites of Mary in Illinois. When she was assigned to a parish in suburban Chicago, the all-White congregants refused to accept her, causing her to resign from the order. She then enrolled at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.

Dr. Tolbert-Glover went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Canisius College, a master’s degree from the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System, and a master’s degree and doctorate in higher education from Stanford University.

Throughout her career, Dr. Tolbert-Glover held administrative and teaching positions at various educational institutions, including two historically Black colleges: Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida, and Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. She also served as vice president of development at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, and as a senior fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

In 2000, Dr. Tolbert-Glover left her position at the University of Minnesota to reopen the St. Peter Claver Catholic School in St. Paul. The school, founded in 1950, was one of two predominately Black Catholic schools in Minnesota until it closed in 1989.