Hampton Mourns Death of Iconic Professor, Tennis Coach Robert M. Screen

Dr. Robert Screen, a groundbreaking Hampton Institute graduate who pioneered best practices in academics and athletics, died last week. He was 82.

Screen was the founder of the Institute’s (now Hampton University) speech and pathology program, the first at any historically black college or university. He retired as hair of the university’s Communicative Sciences and Disorders department after more than 50 years at the helm of one of the nation’s leaders in the development of black professionals in speech-and-language pathology and special education.

As a tennis coach, Screen amassed more than 1,000 career victories, 22 consecutive Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles, and NCAA national tennis championships in 1976 and 1989. A 2008 inductee into the CIAA Hall of Fame, Screen also won 11 Mid Eastern Athletic Conference tennis championships between 1996–2010.

“Dr. Screen was one of Hampton University’s iconic figures,” said Dr. William R. Harvey, University President. “Not only did he excel in his area of Communicative Sciences and Disorders but as an outstanding tennis coach as well. He could always be counted on and I believe if one of his veins was cut, he would bleed royal blue and white. He was a Hamptonian through and through and along with many others I will miss him.”