H. Naylor Fitzhugh

Who was H. Naylor Fitzhugh?

Howard Naylor Fitzhugh was one of the first African American graduates of Harvard Business School and is also credited with creating the concept of target marketing.The first known African American graduate of Harvard Business School was a member of the Class of 1915. Wendell Thomas Cunningham, the son of a former slave.http://www.hbsaasu.com/history/

Fitzhugh earned a full Scholarship to Harvard at the age of sixteen while still a student at the famed Dunbar High School in Washingtoin D.C.. Fitzhugh, intent on becoming a Dr., studied the sciences and graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1930. Three years later, he earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, Class of '33. Despite his excellent academic performance, Fitzhugh could not find work in his field and returned to his native Washington, D.C., to teach a business course at Howard University. This was only supposed to be a temporary position, but Fitzhugh taught at Howard University for 31 years teaching marketing and management. At Howard, he developed the university's marketing program, organized its Small-Business Center and advised the student marketing association for many years. One of the many students whose business careers he influenced was his former research assistant, Lillian Lincoln Lambert, who was the first African-American woman to graduate from Harvard Business School 1969.