{"id":2148,"date":"2021-11-02T13:38:41","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T17:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/?p=2148"},"modified":"2022-04-05T12:17:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T16:17:49","slug":"daniel-j-pinkett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/daniel-j-pinkett\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel J. Pinkett"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Daniel J. Pinkett<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Robert A. Grigsby, the sixth chief executive of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore \u2013 when it was known as Princess Anne College \u2013 penned a heartfelt tribute to a deceased colleague in early 1942.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe (college\u2019s) history cannot be written without a large portion of it being centered around the life of the late Daniel J. Pinkett, who gave \u2026 the best days of his life as a teacher of mathematics and related subjects,\u201d Grigsby wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel James Pinkett died Jan. 22, 1942 and is buried in the John Wesley Cemetery affiliated with Princess Anne’s Metropolitan United Methodist Church, where he was a congregant for many years in the early 20th<\/sup> century. The 1880 U.S. Census for Vienna, Md. estimated he was born in either 1857 or 1858, and at that time listed his occupation as “teacher.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Pinkett\u2019s obituary, passed down to his descendants, he was born in Baltimore but \u201ceducated in the public schools of Dorchester County, Md.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Documents in Morgan State University\u2019s archives indicate he earned a degree in 1885 from the Baltimore school when it was called Centenary Biblical Institute. He also studied at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pinkett eventually became a teacher at a \u201ccolored school\u201d in Kent County, Md., where he met his wife Sarah E. Peaker of Galena, a fellow educator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple moved to Salisbury in the mid-1890s, where \u201che became principal of the public school for a number of years,\u201d the obituary says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1902, Pinkett accepted an appointment from Frank Trigg to join Princess Anne Academy’s faculty as a math instructor, a job he held for the next three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnything that was for the development of the school gained his interest and hearty support,\u201d reads the tribute written by Grigsby, who came to Princess Anne to teach English and train teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the second decade of the 20th<\/sup> century, Pinkett\u2019s name was featured prominently in school publications that listed faculty \u2013 just below those of Principal Thomas H. Kiah and Kiah\u2019s first wife, Mary Roberta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one more prompt of duty than Professor Pinkett ever served the Institution,\u201d Grigsby wrote. \u201cHe was loved and respected by all students whom he taught and faculty members with whom he served.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pinkett and his wife raised eight children \u2013 four boys and four girls \u2013 all of whom presumably matriculated at the academy, including Maslin Frysinger Pinkett (class of 1915), who later became a faculty colleague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to great-grandson Steven M. Pinkett Sr., oral history passed down through the generations has it the family patriarch so admired Centenary’s William Maslin Frysinger that he named one of his sons after the white minister who played a key role in the 1886 founding of the private prep school that eventually became the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grigsby described the Pinkett family as \u201can inspiration and wholesome example to all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sarah E. & Daniel J. Pinkett<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Despite a \u201cmeager salary,\u201d Grigsby wrote, \u201che not only maintained his children in a comfortable home, but educated them and sent them forth with a family background and training, which has made them respectable and successful citizens where ever they have lived.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least three of the Pinkett children followed in their parents\u2019 footsteps as educators, and one was a doctor. One served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.  One of his grandsons became an attorney. Great grandson Steven M. Pinkett Sr. and his son are trained as system analysts; i.e. they work with interpreting numbers.  A great-great-granddaughter, entertainer Jada Pinkett Smith, is known to millions of TV and movie fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pinkett\u2019s obituary described him as a \u201cdevout Christian\u201d who served in lay leadership roles and \u201cexemplified his Christian life not only in church activities, but in his daily home life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grigsby noted that Pinkett \u201cknew well what he taught, and taught well what he knew. No student could ever satisfy him with lessons half learned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was loved and respected by all students whom he taught,\u201d Grigsby wrote, \u201cand all faculty member with whom he served.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1987, Daniel Pinkett\u2019s daughter Alice Pinkett McLeod (a 1925 Princess Anne Academy alumna) and siblings Roxie and McCullough Pinkett led an initiative to honor their father\u2019s memory by establishing the Daniel J. Pinkett award to recognize a deserving mathematics student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPrincess Anne College lives today and will live always,\u201d Grigsby\u2019s 1942 tribute reads, \u201cbecause men and women like Professor Pinkett lived and labored there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert A. Grigsby, the sixth chief executive of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore \u2013 when it was known as Princess Anne College \u2013 penned a heartfelt tribute to a deceased colleague in early 1942. \u201cThe (college\u2019s) history cannot be written without a large portion of it being centered around the life of the late…Read more Daniel J. Pinkett<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-2148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2148"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/125\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=2148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}