When Marguerite Ross Barnett (1942-1992) was appointed president of the University of Houston, she became the first black and the first woman chief administrator of the flagship of the four-campus Houston system. She had already made her mark at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, where she was chancellor and tenured professor in political science. The distinguished political scientist has boosted the prestige of both institutions--at St. Louis as one of its most successful fundraisers and at Houston as a major player in a $350 million fundraising campaign.

Born May 22, 1942, in Charlottesville, Virginia, Barnett is the daughter of Dewey Ross and Mary (Douglass) Barnett. She completed elementary school and in 1959 graduated from Bennett High School, both in Buffalo, New York. In 1964, she graduated from Antioch College with an A.B. degree in political science. She continued her studies in political science at the University of Chicago where, in 1966, she...