Dr. Claudia Gwendolyn Jones Mallett, spouse of Capital Community College President Emeritus Conrad L. Mallett, died peacefully at her Bloomfield home on January 30th at the age of 85.

Dr. Mallett, a Chicago native who earned a baccalaureate and her advanced degrees from Wayne State University, was an award-winning and beloved science teacher at West Hartford’s Sedgwick Middle School until her retirement in 1996. During her career she received a national “Science Teacher of the Year” recognition from the National Science Teachers Association.  Dr. Mallett and President Mallett have long been active in support of the College and other Greater Hartford educational, social and cultural organizations.

Dr. Claudia Mallett and President Emeritus Conrad Mallett at the 2008 dedication to a Window to the Future in their honor.

As a young wife and mother, Claudia Mallett was active in the civil rights movement in Detroit where the Malletts previously lived and worked. She was the President of the Independent Negro Committee (INC) to End Racism and Ban the Bomb and also served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Women’s International Strike for Peace.  In 1963, she along with other members of the INC and the United Auto Workers (UAW) joined with the Reverend C. L. Franklin to organize the Detroit March for Civil Rights, Peace and Justice led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She was on stage when Dr. King first introduced the “I Have a Dream” speech made famous in August of that year.

In 2008 the College’s Foundation, in receipt of gifts in honor of the Malletts, dedicated a Window to the Future at the second floor Welcome Center in support of the Mallett Scholarship endowment fund.    “President Mallett and Claudia Mallett are well-recognized in Greater Hartford for their longstanding support of the arts, economic opportunity, social justice and education,” read the dedication statement. “Together they have generously given their time and talent to these causes and continue to do so. Both have been exemplary educators in our community.”

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10 a.m. Friday (February 6, 2015) at Sacred Heart Church, 26 Wintonbury Ave., Bloomfield, Connecticut. Her family will receive friends on Thursday from 3:30-6:30 p.m. at Sacred Heart Church.  More information is available at http://www.carmonfuneralhome.com/obituary?id=1476846