Joyce M. Huggins, a professor emerita of teacher education at Fresno State University in California, died earlier this month at her home in Fresno. She was 97 years old.
The Early Education Center at the university’s Kremen School of Education and Human Development is named in her honor.
A native of Onalaska, Wisconsin, she earned a degree at Baptist Missionary Training School in Chicago. She then taught at segregated Black schools in South Carolina. After marrying and moving to New York City during World War II, she earned a master’s degree at New York University and later earned a doctorate at Arizona State University.
Before joining the Fresno State faculty in 1970, Dr. Huggins served as the director of federal Head Start programs for the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
She was president of the California Professors of Early Childhood Education and the National Committee for the World Organization of Early Childhood Education. She retired from teaching in 1985 at the age of 70.