Marron William Fort

During World War II, Fort served as chief chemist and plant superintendent of H. and G. J. Caldwell Company in Massachusetts.^[5] In 1954, he joined the chemical industries staff at the Advisory Bureau for Commerce of the U.S. Department of Commerce, serving in Tel Aviv, Israel,^[2][3] making him the highest ranked African-American appointed to a governmental technical post in a foreign country at that time.^[6] In 1957, he joined the International Cooperation Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of State, and then served as deputy chief on the Industrial and Transportation Division, U.S. Operations Mission, of the International Co-op Administration at Ankara, Turkey, until 1959. He became chief of this same division in Pakistan until 1961 when he returned to Washington, D.C., with the Department of State.^[2][3]

Fort died in Washington on September 18, 1961, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.^[2] He was survived by his wife Alice (nee Curtiss) and son Marron C. Fort.^[7]

In 1973, MIT established a graduate fellowship in Fort's honor. The Fort Fellowship was awarded to "the most promising senior minority student who has been accepted for graduate study at M.I.T."^[8][9][10]