TGG

                 LENWORTH GUNTHER, Ph.D.                                                                                                                                                                      

           Of Jamaican roots, Dr. Lenworth Gunther grew up and resided thirty-three years in New York City’s tough and vibrant community of Harlem before moving to New Jersey. A graduate of New York’s public schools, including Stuyvesant High School, he later became a Woodrow Wilson and Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellow and earned four degrees at Columbia University: a BA, MA, Master of Philosophy, and a Ph.D. in American History with specialties in African American, West African and Russian studies.

            Dr. Gunther’s professional journey has taken him from the classroom, community, corporation and civic arena to the media. In 1969, two years after teaching his first high school students, he helped prepare Columbia University’s first African American history course. Gunther taught African, Caribbean and African American studies, and public speaking over a thirty-five-year college teaching career from 1971 to 2006 at a number of schools in New Jersey, including Drew University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Rutgers University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Ramapo College and Essex County College, where he developed, designed and directed the Africana Institute (2000 - 2006).

            Lenworth Gunther regularly appears on radio and television. He produced and hosted a cable television talk show, Impact, and created and directed Edmedia Associates, Inc. from 1986 to 2006.  His power also reaches to the publishing world. His writings include articles on African American life and such books as The New Jersey African American History Curriculum Guide for High School, Black Image, and Flaming Tongue: The Rise of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., which Gunther cited in 1989 as historian and commentator for the Academy Award-nominated documentary that year about the life of the late Harlem minister and congressman.

            Dr. Lenworth Gunther has traveled across the United States and throughout the world, bringing his informative and inspirational, educational and empowering words to thousands of community, college, corporate, government and law enforcement groups.  His international reach has included lectures and workshops in Germany, Bermuda, the Bahamas, US Virgin Islands and Jamaica, West Indies. Twice invited to address the staff and invited dignitaries at the US Mission to the United Nations, Lenworth Gunther was once introduced and described by former UN Ambassador Bill Richardson as a "true keeper of the flame" of American ideals and African American inspiration and leadership.

            Worldwide demand for Dr. Lenworth Gunther’s bold, uplifting and unique mix of realism and idealism keeps him busy, but never long from home, for family, church and community are the central building blocks of his life. Among numerous civic activities, he served in the early 1980’s on the East Orange, New Jersey Board of Education, founded the Essex County College Relief Fund for the homeless and hungry here and abroad, and has served on the advisory board of numerous organizations and agencies. He has been a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity since 1968 and lives by its credo, "Friendship is Essential to the Soul," and motto, "Manhood, Scholarship, Perseverance and Uplift." 

     COMMENTS ABOUT                     DR. GUNTHER          

 

"Historian focuses on unsung heroes of civil rights cause...Gunther's words, which he delivered with the fervor of a storefront preacher and the knowledge of a professor, brought a crowd to its feet at Essex County's first African American History Month Celebration at the Hall of Records in Newark."

               The Starledger                                  February 26, 2004   

    My Take on School Forum

"The hour included... remarks from panelists and a rousing speech by the well-known motivational speaker Lenworth Gunther.
Gunther was engaging and entertaining, starting with a proverb he recited in French Creole, then translated: “Together we can make a difference, for every vein affects the heart.” 

              Bernice Paglia
       Plainfield Plaintalker                     April 25,  2007

"Weaving well-researched history with motivational speech, Lenworth Gunther addressed educators, students, the press and the public ... at Raritan Valley Community College as the keynote speaker of the Opening Day Ceremony of the college's Black History Month events. The theme "Carter G. Woodson and the Origins of Multiculturalism" afforded Gunther the opportunity to teach about a career educator and historian — a man who sought to emphasize the contribution of black people to the history of America and the world. The choice of Gunther as keynote speaker proved to be inspired."

                 Courier News                                  February 16, 2008