Retired professor taught chemistry, was dean at UT Arthur H. Black, a retired professor of chemistry and associate dean of the college of arts and sciences at the University of Toledo, died of cancer Wednesday in Toledo Hospital. He was 80. Mr. Black, of West Toledo, carried the university mace at the head of the procession during commencement exercises for more than a decade, although he retired at the end of 1983 and stopped teaching about five years ago. He was too ill to take part in this year's commencement, his wife, Virginia, said. He was well regarded as a professor and administrator, said Dr. Lancelot Thompson, a retired UT vice president for student affairs and a retired chemistry professor.
Some chemists talk above the head of their students.
He made it understandable. He saw his duty as both imparting information and helping students develop as people, said his son, Curt, a professor of clinical pharmacy at UT and chairman of the department of pharmacy practice. Mr. Black grew up on Garden Park Drive in West Toledo and was a graduate of the former DeVilbiss High School. A specialist in analytical chemistry, he received bachelor and master's degrees in chemistry from UT and a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Michigan. A Navy veteran of World War II, he served aboard the USS Kidd in the Pacific and was wounded by shrapnel in a Japanese kamikaze attack.