Gillian T. Cell, the former provost at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has died at her home in North Carolina as a result of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly know as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. She was 75 years old.
Dr. Cell was a native of England and held bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees in history from the University of Liverpool. She came to the United States in 1962 and three years later was the first woman hired to a tenure-track position in the history department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She went on to become the first woman to chair the department and the first woman to serve as the university’s dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
In 1993, she became the third person and first woman to hold the position of provost at the College of William and Mary. She retired in 2003.