The first female president of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore's (UMES), Chancellor of the Southern University system and Southern University and A&M College, Dr. Dolores Richard Spikes has died. She was 78 years old.

Spikes was the first woman to head a public college in Louisiana. Spikes served as Chancellor of Southern University from 1988 to 1996 and president of UMES from 1996 to 2001. She also served as Chancellor of Southern University - New Orleans campus and the Southern University system.

She was UMES 11th president and took the position over from William P. Hytche Sr. who was the president from 1975 to 1996.  Hytche urged Spikes to apply for the job, according to his book "Polishing the Diamond." Hytche and Spikes knew each other from their work as leaders of historically black land-grant institutions.

Born on August 24, 1936, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Spikes was the daughter of Lawrence Granville Richard and Margaret Patterson Richard. She graduated from Southern University in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics with summa cum laude in 1957.

Spikes was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Louisiana State University in 1971.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton named Spikes to his board of advisers on historically black colleges and university and in January 1990, EBONY named her one of the twenty "Most Influential Black women in America."

The D.J's Music Site HBCU Campaign Fund organization joins to extend its sympathies and condolences to Dr. Spikes family, friends, UMES family, Southern University family and HBCU nation at this difficult time.