Donald Julian Reaves

Academic administrator Donald Julian Reaves was born on October 28, 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio to Nellie Glass and Thomas Jackson. He graduated from Glenville High School in 1965. Reaves went to work for a local supermarket company, Pick-n-Play, a job that he held for twelve years, working first in its warehouse and subsequently, for nine years, as an 18-wheel truck driver. In 1970, Reaves met Deborah Ross who encouraged him to pursue his education. He went on to earn his B.A. degree in political science from Cleveland State University in 1976 and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science and public administration from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio in 1978 and 1981, respectively.

Between 1977 and 1980, Reaves served as the assistant director of Kent State University’s Washington Program in National Issues and as a teaching fellow in the Department of Political Science. In 1980, Reaves was hired as assistant professor of political science at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. From 1985 to 1993, he served as an adjunct professor of public administration. In 1984, Reaves worked as the deputy budget director at the Department of Public Welfare in Massachusetts before joining Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he worked as assistant vice president and university budget director from 1988 to 1991, vice president of finance from 1991 to 1993, and executive vice president for finance and administration and CFO from 1993 to 2002. In 2002, Reaves was hired by the University of Chicago as its vice president for administration and chief financial officer and he worked there until 2007 when he was hired as the as chancellor of Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

During his career, Reaves served as director and chair of the American Student Assistance Corporation in Boston from 1994 to 2019 and director of Bank Rhode Island and Delta Dental of Rhode Island from 1997 to 2002. Reaves became lead director of the board of Amica Mutual Insurance Company in Lincoln, Rhode Island in 2004, and from 2004 to 2019, he served as independent trustee and lead trustee of the William Blair Mutual Funds in Chicago. He also served, from 2013 to 2014, on the Wells Fargo Advisory Board in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Reaves holds emeritus status in the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (the Boule’), having held various leadership positions, including that of Sire Archon.

In 2013, Winston-Salem State University opened the Donald Julian Reaves Student Activities Center in his honor, and the Winston-Salem Chronicle named Reaves Man of the Year. In 2014, Reaves received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Winston-Salem State University.

Reaves and his wife, Deborah Ross Reaves have two children: a son, Marc Creach, and a daughter, Katherine Reaves. They reside in Edgartown, Massachusetts and Lakewood Ranch, Florida.

Donald Julian Reaves was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 28, 2024.