Mrs. Barbara Joyce Moye Hamilton of Cazenovia, recently passed away at home due to natural (non-COVID -19) causes. She was 78 years old. A native of Thomasville, Wilcox County, AL (Jim Crow era), Mrs. Hamilton was a 20-year resident of the village of Cazenovia and a lifelong educator who was a proud HBCU graduate of Alabama A&M University (bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry) and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison (master’s degree in counseling and guidance).
Her professional career included serving as dean of students at Jean Nicolet High School in Glendale, WI, director of multicultural resources at SUNY Morrisville, (NY) with a later appointment to SUNY Upstate Medical University as assistant dean of multicultural affairs. She helped to nurture and educate thousands of students from South Central Alabama and Mississippi to South Central and North Shore suburban Milwaukee, WI, to Central New York. Her 45-year career spanned instructional and administrative duties serving junior high, high school, college level and, ultimately, aspiring physicians at the SUNY Upstate Medical University at Syracuse.
At SUNY UMU, Dean Hamilton was particularly remembered for crafting and implementing the Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP), a 1.5 M USD grant in association with the U.S. Deptartment of Health and Human Services, one of the first programs of its kind in Upstate New York. HCOP served to assist Syracuse-area middle and high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds to enter allied health professions and provide guidance through the educational pipeline.
Dean Hamilton also was instrumental in re-introducing Black History Month events at SUNY UMU in 2004, by acknowledging and celebrating the contributions of notable Medical School graduates Sarah Loguen – Fraser MD (SUNY UMU’s first woman of color Medical School graduate) and Elizabeth Blackwell MD (SUNY UMU’s first woman Medical School graduate.)
Dean Hamilton was equally passionate in her lifelong pursuit of human and civil rights, which included women’s and racial equality as well as her philanthropic and volunteer activities. She was a former member of the Southern Leadership Conference (SCLC), the NAACP and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, with her late husband, Phillip R., III MD) from 1961-1966, participating in student-led sit-ins and voter registration campaigns throughout the Southeastern U.S., as well as the “Freedom Summer” event in 1964. During this period, “Miss Barbara” met, worked with and participated in nonviolent civil discourse activities with such inestimable luminaries as the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Ella Baker, Medgar Evers, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Hon. John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and the Rev. Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.
Dean Hamilton was a lifetime member of the historically African American Hellenic sorority Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. As a proud 61-year member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, she diligently served and mentored many sorors throughout her decade’s long association. She was also a lifetime member of Links, Incorporated in the Milwaukee, WI, Syracuse and Mobile, AL areas. Amongst her professional memberships and associations, included the National Educational Association (NEA), United University Professions (UUP) and the National Association of Minority Medical Educators (NAMME).
Barbara Joyce Moye Hamilton or, “Miss Barbara,” as she was affectionately known, was preceded in passing from this life, by her grandparents, the late Eddie Crear and the late Sallie Lee Crear of Thomasville, AL, her father, the late James Moye of Buffalo, and her mother, the late Colander Clarice Crear (Moye) of Mobile, AL, her late brother, Arthur “Bubba” Crear of Mobile, AL, and her husband, the late Phillip R. Hamilton III, MD of Gladwyne, PA. She leaves behind many loving relatives and friends, primary of which include her loving and devoted son, Phillip R. Hamilton IV (Audrey B.) of Cazenovia, cousins Willie Evans of Rochester, Ann Wade of Greece, N.Y., and Maxine Scott (Raymond) of Penfield, N.Y., close friends Trymeter Carter of Syracuse, Priscilla Dhafir of Fayetteville and Betty Baker Pugh of Mobile, AL, and scores of loving relatives, friends and associates.
Throughout the decades of her life, “Dean Barbara” loved, mentored, nurtured and educated generations of her family, students and friends. Barbara leaves behind a considerable legacy of educational, philanthropic, professional and social justice advocacy. Her undying qualities of strength, courage, perseverance, grace, intelligence and love will never be forgotten. She will be greatly missed by all who knew her.
A “home-going,” remembrance ceremony will be held for Dean Hamilton at the Hamilton residence on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021 in Cazenovia Village at 2 p.m., as well as simulcast live on YouTube. The Hamilton family requests donations to any of the following philanthropic institutions in lieu of flowers: The Barbara J. Moye Hamilton Health Careers Scholarship for Under-Represented Students Endowment- Fund # 64525, payable to and mailed to: The Upstate Foundation, 750 East Adams St., CAB 326, Syracuse, NY 13210; Delta Sigma Theta Syracuse Alumnae Chapter, PO Box 6578, Syracuse, NY 13217 or The Syracuse (NY) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, P.O. Box 345, Syracuse, NY 13214. To leave a message of sympathy for Miss Barbara’s family, please visit michaelebrownfuneralservices.com.
