Mathematics was Bertha Royal's favorite subject. She proved her abilities by graduating from Fisk cum laude in less than four years. She moved to the Canton, Ohio, area in 1945, then to Cleveland in 1958, when she began thinking about earning an advanced degree.

At the time a single mother with three small children, she nevertheless enrolled in Western Reserve University determined to earn a master's degree in education. Freiberger Library is the place she remembers best and where she spent most of her time. After earning her master's degree, she fulfilled her dream by combining her love of math with her desire to teach.

Now retired, Mrs. Royal has fond memories and few regrets. "Life with all its happiness and sorrows is still wonderful."

She credits her parents' love, inspiration, and their desire for her to live in an educational environment as key to her success at Fisk and beyond. "Though they are now deceased, they still inspire me. They gave me hope and values."

Good Samaritans gave Ella Mae Johnson the love and guidance she needed early in life. Their nurturing, in part, led to her career as a social worker. Now 102, Mrs. Johnson is one of the oldest living graduates of the School of Applied Social Sciences, now the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve.

Orphaned as a child, she was taken in and reared by a neighborhood couple. They were of modest means and had little schooling, yet they recognized that a college education was crucial to improving her life.

While she was a high school student in Dallas, Texas, a school administrator—an alumna of Fisk University—persuaded the Fisk Glee Club to contribute enough for a year's scholarship at Fisk. Mrs. Johnson enrolled in 1921.

At Fisk, she discovered she enjoyed studying French and considered teaching it after graduation. Teaching was one of the few professions open to African American women, she recalls. "But I didn't think there was any place that would hire a black woman to teach French."

She took several courses in sociology as a backup, and, in her senior year, lived and worked in the Bethlehem Center, a settlement house. The experience was so positive that she decided she preferred social work to teaching and set out to learn the necessary skills to be successful.

Among the highlights of her time at Fisk was hearing alumnus W.E.B. DuBois, a noted writer and inf luential civil rights and social justice advocate, speak during a commencement address in 1924. His speech, which criticized the Fisk administration for being too preoccupied with money, led to a student strike that extended into the following academic year. Mrs. Johnson participated in the strike by refusing to attend classes the first quarter of her senior year. The result meant she did not graduate until the following August.

Her first job after graduating was as a social worker for a church in Raleigh, North Carolina. She met a friend, also a Fisk alumna, who recommended the School of Applied Social Sciences. She came to Cleveland in fall 1926.

She cites the social work school's overall coursework as good training for fieldwork. Courses prepared students for issues they would encounter with clients, such as finances, unemployment, domestic problems, child rearing. The university did not provide housing for people of color, so Mrs. Johnson lived with a private family. She also joined the Mount Zion Congregational Church, United Church of Christ (U.C.C.), whose members served as a surrogate family and where she remains a member today.

After earning her master's degree, she began work with the Cuyahoga County Department of Welfare. One of her clients was a widow named Louise Stokes, who was struggling to raise two sons. The boys, Louis and Carl, grew up to become noted and respected politicians: Carl became mayor of Cleveland; and Louis became a 15-term U.S. congressman representing Ohio's 21st district. He is now a Senior Visiting Scholar at the Mandel School. Mrs. Johnson also worked for the county's Aid to Dependent Children and the Child Welfare Board. She took an early retirement in 1961.

She has two sons whom she raised on her own after the death of her first husband, Elmer Cheeks, in 1941. She remarried in 1957. She is a grandmother and great-grandmother.

Once retired, Mrs. Johnson hit the road. She has visited 30 countries on five continents. She has volunteered with her church and has served on all levels of the board of the U.C.C.

Although she did not know it at the time, Mrs. Johnson is one of the pioneers of what has become a long relationship between the two universities, now officially called the Case- Fisk Partnership.

"I believe I chose my career wisely for in settings not formally determined to be social work, much of my interest and activity throughout my life has centered around helping others financially and otherwise. My many tours have enabled and encouraged me to promote relief of the suffering." A recent example of this is rather than give gifts for her 100th birthday in January 2004, she asked family, friends, and well-wishers to support AIDS victims in Kenya. Her request generated $3,000. "My efforts were not to pay back, but to continue being a Good Samaritan."

When Billie Navojosky went up for a layup at one-hundred year old Mather Gym in the late 60's and early 70s, she wasn't thinking about her opponent fast approaching from behind or kissing the ball off the top of the painted block on the backboard. Navojosky was thinking about her foot work, and not in basketball terms.

"The basket in Mather Gym was right at the end against the wall and you had to kick off it when you did a layup," laughed Navojosky. "With all the physical obstacles, it was like playing gladiator or bumper ball. It wasn't until my senior year that we were able to move over to Adelbert Gymnasium and actually play a couple of our games there. That was a big deal."

Real Mather uniforms, unlike the men's soccer or field hockey uniforms Navojosky and her teammates had to don, will be on the modern day Case Western Reserve University women's team this weekend as part of the Athletic Department's third annual Throwback Weekend. The Spartans face Washington University Friday night at 6 p.m. and the University of Chicago on Sunday at 2 p.m. in historic Adelbert Gymnasium.