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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
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The West Virginia Encyclopedia
Location/County: Charleston, Kanawha
August 18, 2016
On Thursday, August 18, 2016, Rosa Lena Pickel will present “African American Life: A Personal Perspective” in the Archives and History Library in the Culture Center in Charleston. The program, which is the fourth of the 2016 Block Speakers Series, will begin at 6:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Rosa Lena Pickel was born in Charleston, the fourth child and third daughter to Samuel David Pickel Sr. and Lydia Byrd Plunkett. She attended Boyd Elementary, Boyd Jr. High, and Garnet High School and graduated as class valedictorian in January 1948. In 1952, she graduated magna cum laude from West Virginia State College, receiving a bachelor’s of science in education with majors in business administration and French.
Rosa Pickel was the first West Virginia State College graduate to receive the Fulbright Award to study and travel abroad. She studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the Université de Franche-Comté in Besançon, France, from September 1952 to June 1953 and received the Certificate of French Studies. In 1965, Pickel received a master’s degree in French Literature from Atlanta University.
Her teaching career began in 1955 at Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, and concluded at West Virginia State College in May 1996. During those years she taught French, Spanish, English, and Commerce in high schools and colleges from Maryland to South Carolina. She served as commencement marshal at West Virginia State College for many years and was grand marshal at her own retirement in May 1996.
Pickel is a member of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, where she has held many leadership positions. She has traveled to Europe, Africa, the Holy Land, Greece, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Egypt and currently enjoys preventive care exercises, short trips, photography, and her sorority Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She also participates in the Henry Highland Garnett Foundation, Inc., and the WVSC Foundation, Inc., and is a member of the President’s Circle at West Virginia State and an annual scholarship donor.
Participants may park behind the Culture Center after 5:00 p.m. on August 18 and enter the building at the back loading dock area. There also is limited handicapped parking available in the new bus turnaround.
For additional information, call (304) 558-0230.