A Black History Month program at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s recently featured attorney and scholar Judy Scales-Trent, who discussed the life of her father, William J. Trent Jr., the hospital’s first black trustee, who served as President of the Board of Trustees from 1970 through 1974. Mr. Trent was the first Executive Director of the United Negro College Fund and served in that position from 1944 to 1964.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to talk about the impact my father made on the African American community,” says Ms. Scales-Trent, Professor Emerita at the School of Law, State University of New York at Buffalo. At her request, James E. C. Norris, MD, a retired plastic surgeon from Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, was invited to the lecture. A fellow writer, Dr. Norris published a biography about his father, who was one of Virginia’s leading black physicians.