Rev. Brenda Tapia, who polished ‘diamonds in the rough’ at Davidson College, dies

Growing up in Davidson, where her father was a Davidson College maintenance worker before becoming an assistant in the chemistry department, Brenda Tapia and her friends spent hours playing “church.”

“They would be shouting and I would be preaching,” she said in a 1996 Observer interview. Tapia never imagined becoming a real minister, a job that in the 1950s was reserved for men. Tapia said she was 33 before she first saw a woman minister.

But Tapia did become an ordained Presbyterian minister, and she returned to Davidson College as an assistant chaplain. While there, she led a program — Love of Learning — that for nearly 20 years helped young black students see their own futures differently. She also became an outspoken voice for racial equality and justice on campus.

The Rev. Brenda Howard Tapia, 70, a mentor to hundreds with friends across the Davidson community, died Feb. 4 in Charlotte. Her funeral at noon Friday at Davidson College Presbyterian Church will be live-streamed on the church’s Facebook page.

‘Freeing the light within’

After graduating North Mecklenburg High School, Davidson College says, Tapia earned a psychology degree at Howard University and worked for several years as a counselor. She came to see that psychological problems were often linked to spiritual ones and enrolled at Johnson C. Smith Seminary in Atlanta, and was ordained in 1988.

She returned to Davidson in 1985, while still in seminary, and began working as an acting pastor at a Mooresville church. The college soon hired Tapia as a part-time consultant for minority student affairs, then as a full-time assistant chaplain and minority student counselor.

When a college task force suggested creating an enrichment program for underrepresented high school students, Love of Learning was born in 1987. Tapia quickly embraced it, calling the program a “church in disguise” because she felt it represented what churches are supposed to be.

“On the side we taught them a little reading, writing, and arithmetic. But anyone can pick that up,” the college quoted her as saying of the program. “The real emphasis was on freeing the light within.”

More than 500 students participated in the program over 19 years, and by Tapia’s count 97% of them continued their education beyond high school.

“Brenda’s service to Davidson College and the larger community was a blessing. She had the will and the skill to change lives, both as a chaplain on this campus and in neighborhoods beyond,” Davidson College’s president emeritus, John Kuykendall, said in a statement from the college.

“In the very best sense, the Love of Learning program became her lengthened shadow. She took the inkling of a dream and transformed it into an unforgettable experience of growth and discovery for hundreds of young people in Mecklenburg County.”

Summer camps at college

The program was for high school students, largely African American, who lived on campus for a month each summer for three years. They took core courses and electives ranging from public speaking to dance, while also going to sessions on topics such as leadership training and computer science. Parents paid nothing for the program but were expected to participate. Davidson College students and program graduates served as mentors.

Tapia called her charges “diamonds in the rough” — not necessarily the top students, but those with undeveloped potential. Transformation, she once said, is what ministry is all about.

“One of the most positive aspects of the program was watching children who had no idea of what their potential was begin to actualize it. Seeing kids that didn’t think they could do things doing it. I felt like the program made a difference,” she told The Observer when she retired in 2006. The college phased out Love of Learning that year in favor of other diversity programs.

Those she influenced saluted Tapia’s legacy on her Facebook page.

“She treated me like a young adult and helped me walk into my confidence, my blackness and my intelligence with my head held high an unapologetically. She taught thousands of others to do the same,” Tammie Tolbert wrote

“Her brainchild was so successful that the national TV shows ... came running to see ‘how did she do it?’ I’‘ll tell you how ... She did it out of pure passion and love for black children.”

Lakiva Blakeney wrote: “Thanks for believing in me! You saw the true beauty within that little introvert chubby girl I used to be! You challenged me even when I became an adult because of the love you never lost for me. Although you gained your wings last night, your impact in many lives is definitely evident.”

“You saw diamonds in the rough and polished us into brilliant gems,” wrote Melissa Givens, a mentor in the program’s first two classes. “Thank you for reminding us all who we are and ‘whose’ we are. One of her favorite texts was an integral part of Love of Learning. She embodied it, lived it, and shared it with all of us.

“Beauty am I/ Spirit am I/ I am the infinite within my soul/ I can find no beginning/ I can find no end/ All this I am.”

Tapia is survived by her father, James Howard of Davidson, and sisters Cassandra Howard of Cornelius and Beverly Bailey of Lithonia, Ga.

This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 2:38 PM.