Dr. Elvin Montgomery, Jr.
Obituary
Sunrise: April 16, 1947
Sunset: November 20, 2022
His daughter, Monica O. Montgomery; his son-in-law, Mthokozisi Nyathi; his nephew, Harold Montgomery Jr.; and his first cousins, Lucretia-del Broussard, August Nimtz, and Sanna Towns, among many 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 lived in Morningside Heights on New York City's Upper West Side and will be dearly missed.
Dr. Elvin Montgomery, Jr. was a father, humanitarian, scholar, counselor, and cultural historian. In spirit and in truth, he was relentlessly dedicated to preserving the African American Diaspora and Black History. He enjoyed spending time with his daughter, family, and friends, exploring Harlem, eating healthy, traveling through Africa, listening to 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 Collection.
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 of his late brother, Harold Hilton Montgomery Sr. In 1980, he married Sandra Brannon, the love of his life, of Washington, D.C., and their union brought their 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 and interests shaped his daughter’s life path and career trajectory in culture, community, curation, and museums.
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, including the Schomburg Library, the Smithsonian Institution, and museums and historical societies. He planned and managed public presentations and educational events, keynotes, and seminars to provide better information to audiences interested in or involved 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 other prominent Black luminaries and notable figures. He was highly respected for his 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 African Fellowship, established a scholarship for African students pursuing higher education, and avidly participated in Sunday School and the Men's Class.
His favorite saying was, “The Truth Shall Set You Free!”
From a very young age, Elvin was baptized as a Christian and attended Tulane Avenue Baptist Church. He attended segregated schools in New Orleans, including 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 received a distinguished W.E.B. Du Bois Medal in 2000 from the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, led by Dr. Henry Louis Gates.
As a management consultant for nearly five decades, he provided educational and consulting services in both the private and nonprofit 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 the material culture of the Black experience. An unabashed history buff and bibliophile for over 30 years, Elvin was deeply interested in and active in the antiques and collectibles world.