The Right Reverend Dr. Paul Lionel Puryear, Sr., Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, passed away on Thursday, April 22, 2010, in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the age of 80. Born in Belleville, New Jersey, as the second son of the Reverend Thomas Langston Puryear, Sr., and the Reverend Pauline Sims Puryear, he attended public schools in Newark, New Jersey. He transferred as a high school freshman to the renowned Palmer Memorial Residential School in Sedalia, North Carolina. He became an ordained A.M.E. minister at the age of 18.