Elvin Montgomery Jr., Ph. D.
Sunrise 4/16/1947 - Sunset 11/20/2022
Dr. Elvin Montgomery, Jr. was a father, a humanitarian, a scholar, a counselor and a cultural historian. He was in spirit and in truth relentlessly dedicated and committed to the preservation of the African American Diaspora and Black History. He enjoyed spending time with his daughter, family and friends, exploring Harlem, eating healthy, traveling through Africa, disco music, genealogy, meditation, Buddhist and Christian spirituality, linguistics and world cultures, learning about heraldry and illustrating family crests, antiquing, collecting silver, purchasing ephemera and collectibles to build his beloved Montgomery Collectiom,
Elvin is survived by his daughter: Monica O. Montgomery, son in law: Mthokozisi Nyathi, nephew: Harold Montgomery Jr., and first cousins: Lucretia-del Broussard, August Nimtz, and Sanna Towns, amongst a host of younger cousins, family and friends. He was a longstanding member of The Riverside Church and was married in Christ Chapel. For over 50 years he was a resident of Morningside Heights in the Upper West Side of New York City, and will be dearly missed.
Elvin was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on April 16, 1947, to the late Elvin Montgomery Sr. (father) and Rita W. Montgomery (mother). He was the oldest to his late brother, Harold Hilton Montgomery, Sr. In 1980 he married Sandra Brannon thr love of his life, of Washington DC, and to this union was born his beloved daughter and only child, Monica Octavia Montgomery. He was a consistent presence in her life until his dying day and he gave her the nickname Pumpkin as a child. His values ans interests shaped how daughters life path and career trajectory in culture, community, curation and museums.
From a very young age, Elvin was baptized as Chiristian and attended Tulane Avenue Baptist Church. His early education was in the segregated schools of New Orleans, attending Valena C. Jones (Elementary) School and the all-boys St. Augustine High School, graduating in 1964 at the top of his class. He entered some of America’s elite Ivy League universities, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968 from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also graduated and holds a Ph.D. (1979), M.Phil. and an M.S. (all in psychology) from Columbia University in New York, NY. He was awarded a distinguished W.E.B. Du Bois Medal in 2000, from the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, helmed by Dr Henry Louis Gates.
As a management consultant for nearly five decades, he provided educational and consulting services in both the private and non-profit sectors to universities, businesses, health care, and nonprofit organizations; assisting through management consulting and organizational psychology. Among his many professions he was also a tenured college professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York, BMCC, New York City Tech and many other institutions.
Dr. Montgomery is the author of one of the finest books on Black Americana, Collecting African American History (2001, Stewart Tabori & Chang); the first comprehensive, illustrated book offering in-depth information about African American collectibles, highlighting the value of black history and the case for investing in material culture of the black experience. Having been an unabashed history buff and bibliophile, for over 30 years, Elvin was very interested and active in the antiques and collectibles world.
Over the past 50 years, He has amassed ‘The Montgomery Collection’, a huge treasure trove of thousands of extraordinary historical materials which his daughter is preparing to transform into a public archive and museum - DiasporaDNA Story Center. The diverse archive, consists mostly of books, ephemera and photographs, news clippings, vintage art, figurines, postcards, letters, magazines and broadsides, covering a variety of themes within American history and the global south: e.g. social life, politics, art, music and entertainment, sports, religion, slavery, family, racial uplift and reconstruction, literature and education.
As an appraiser, and entrepreneur he worked with many educational and cultural institutions and designed educational workshops. He was an avid lecturer, researcher, writer and advisor to individuals and institutions building historical collections such as the Schomburg Library, Smithsonian Institution, and museums and historical societies. He planned and managed publoc presentations and educational events, keynotes and seminars to provide better information to audiences that had an interest or a role in cultural and historical affairs. He is renowned for appraising major African American estates and collections such as the Rosa Parks collection, Carter G Woodson, Carl Lewis and many prominent Black luminaries and notable persons. He was highly respected for scholarship and his one of a kind, annual exhibitions of black history which he put on during February - Black History Month in the Upper West Side.
Professionally, he served on the Board of Directors as a certified member of the Appraisers Association of America and the Ephemera Society; and was a member of several black psychology groups, The Harvard Club and the Afro American Historical Genealogy Society. At Riverside Church, he was a member of the The African Fellowship and established a scholarship for African students pursuing higher education and avidely particpated in Sunday School and the Men's Class.
His favorite saying was “The Truth Shall Set You Free!”