INDReporter

Former school board member Ed Sam dies

Edward Sam, a longtime Lafayette Parish educator, school board member and advocate for the at-risk students of the district, died Monday. Sam was 84 years old.

Edward Sam — a longtime Lafayette Parish educator, school board member and advocate for the at-risk students of the district — died April 27. Sam was 84.

His career as an educator included more than 40 years at the former Holy Rosary Institute. He also taught and served as a principal for the Lafayette Parish School System, and was at the former Youngsville Negro Elementary School at the time of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954.

In addition to pushing for the school’s eventual renaming to Green T. Lindon Elementary, Sam also was influential in the school system obtaining unitary status in the federal government’s desegregation case.

Sam was first elected to represent District 4 on the school board in 1991, becoming a strong advocate for the school system’s at-risk students for nearly 20 years. He served until 2010 when he opted against another re-election bid.