Larry G. Coleman
Multicultural affairs director at Community College of Baltimore County and storyteller was ‘humble and gracious’
Larry G. Coleman, former director of multicultural affairs at the Community College of Baltimore County and an early member of the Black Storytellers Association, died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the University of Maryland Medical Center on Jan. 22. The longtime Eutaw Place/Madison Avenue Historic District resident was 76.
“He was a statue of a man who embraced family, community and was global, a man whose arms extended far from Baltimore,” said the Rev. Qismat Alim, pastor of Payne Memorial AME Church.
“He had the heart of a servant and was humble and gracious. He was a gentle giant,” she said. “Dr. Coleman — he’d always say, ‘Call me Larry,’ and I’d say, ‘No, you’ve earned it’ — was thoughtful, intelligent, a scholar and an extraordinary man in so many ways.”
David K. Truscello, an English professor who retired from CCBC-Essex in 2016, was both a colleague and friend.
“Larry was an awesome and amazing man and a great leader,” he said. “He showed us the difference between teaching and training, and one of his key phrases was ‘The answer is in this room and we can discover it here.’”
Larry Grant Coleman, son of James Grant Coleman and Dorothy Nicholson Coleman, a registered nurse, was born in Gulfport, Mississippi.
When he was 5 and wishing to escape the racism and repressive Jim Crow laws in Mississippi, Mr. Coleman and his parents joined the Great Migration and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where he graduated in 1963 from Boys High School.
“Larry’s Southern roots were firmly planted in his Mississippi heritage and created a strong foundation for his life,” wrote his wife of 28 years, the former Deborah Peaks, retired program director at Washington, D.C.-based Delta Research and Educational Foundation, in a biographical profile of her husband.
Mrs. Coleman said her husband’s lifelong passion for education was embodied in a quote from the late South Africa president and social activist Nelson Mandela: “Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.”
After high school, Mr. Coleman began his college studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, then the University of Buffalo, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1967.
In 1970, he obtained a master’s degree in English from Indiana University in Bloomington, and his Ph.D. in intercultural communication in 1976 from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship and joined the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
Before coming to CCBC in 2003, Mr. Coleman had been on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin, Morgan State University, Gallaudet University and Bowie State University.
During his 13-year career at CCBC — based mainly in Catonsville and later in Essex — he focused on closing the achievement gap for minority students. As part of that mission, Mr. Coleman and several colleagues created the Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning Program, whose goal is to enable faculty and administrators to work with all kinds of people, regardless of their race, gender or cultural background.
“Larry’s program is still being carried on and it’s about what students needed. It also advised senior leadership about diversity and equity,” Dr. Truscello said.
“And it helped the college navigate those challenging moments it found itself in,” he said. “He also established the Distinguished African American Lecture Series, which brought in significant big-name people from the African American community such as Michele Norris [a journalist] from NPR and others to CCBC.”
Mr. Coleman retired in 2016.
A man of letters, Mr. Coleman “appreciated culture and creative expression,” Mrs. Coleman said, listing his interests as reading, writing poetry, storytelling and folklore. He was also a fan of African drumming and a student at Baile’s African Drum Works in Forestville.
After moving to Maryland, he became an inaugural member of the National Association of Black Storytellers, where he was an early officer, serving as vice president and member of the board.
“I have a large repertoire of personal stories and folk tale I use in all my public speaking work,” he explained in a 2021 virtual interview. “The power of stories is that they deliver useful information but don’t lecture or overwhelm people with the message.”
Mr. Coleman wrote widely on media, politics, folk heroes, gender and what he called the “rhetoric of cultural conflict” for major scholarly journals, and with his wife, edited “Pot Likker Stories for Teachers and Learners,” which is about human development, that was published by Pilgrim Press.
Deeply religious, Mr. Coleman had been an active member of Bethel AME Church, Payne Memorial AME Church and Pennsylvania AME Zion Church. At the last two, he was a Sunday school teacher.
At Payne AME, he was active in the men’s ministry, Christian education, the Boyz to Men Rites of Passage program and the choir.
In the community, he had been a member of Concerned Black Men Inc., and 100 Black Men of Maryland Inc. He also served as a mentor to youths and educators, and was a trainer with the Efficacy Institute in West Burlington, Massachusetts.
In addition to drumming, Mr. Coleman enjoyed biking, watching NFL games and classic Hollywood movies, and fine dining.
He also liked attending family gatherings and keeping in touch by phone with “cousins in Maryland, Mississippi, New Orleans and New York,” his wife said. “He was a big talker.”
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Payne Memorial AME Church at 1714 Madison Ave.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a brother, Nathaniel Allen Coleman of Flossmoor, Illinois; a sister, Arlene Y. Coleman-Romeo of Chicago; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.