Hazel Taft Nimmo was raised in North Carolina. Born on May 28, 1925, in Greenville, she graduated from North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University) in Durham. She majored in English. She earned a master’s in library science from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) and a master’s in education from Rutgers University.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated was an important part of her life. She joined the sorority in 1943 when she was an undergraduate. At the time of her death, she was an 80 year member.
In 1967, she helped start the sorority’s Theta Pi Omega chapter in Blackwood. In a 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer article about an Alpha Kappa Alpha event, she said, “Now we attend all the sorority activities.” And she added, “It makes you feel good to see the young people achieving.”
In 1946, she married her high school sweetheart, James Allen Nimmo. Three years later, her became the pastor at 10th Street Baptist Church and the Nimmos moved to Camden, New Jersey. Rev. Nimmo would spend the next 50 years at the church until his death in 1999.
Courier Post, April 7, 1973
Hazel T. Nimmo was a pastor’s wife and the mother of two sons. In addition, she taught English at Hatch Middle School and then became head librarian at Camden High School. She retired in 1987. According to an obituary, she “combined a lifelong love of learning and reading with her innate skills for outreach and organization to touch the lives of thousands of students, church members, neighbors, sorority sisters, and others.”
At the 10th Street Baptist Church, she taught Sunday school and was on the religious education committee. In 2014, the church honored her with the naming of the Sister Hazel T. Nimmo Spiritual Research and Resource Center.
From 1994 until 2014, she was a member of the board of trustees at Camden Community College. During her tenure, she chaired the committee on academic and student affairs.
She was 98 years old when she died on June 12, 2023.
