Southfield celebrates local icon’s 80th

SOUTHFIELD — “There’s nobody quite like Barb,” said Pamela Zarkowski, University of Detroit Mercy’s provost and vice president for academic affairs.

She has known Barbara Purifoy-Seldon since 1978 as “an educator, role model, advocate and friend to many,” Zarkowski said. “And she has such a warm and welcoming smile.”

Purifoy-Seldon celebrated her 80th birthday on Saturday, April 8, at the Detroit Golf Club with over 200 guests in attendance. Purifoy-Seldon was born in Alabama on April 6, 1943, the fourth child of eight children. When she was 5 months old, her parents moved to Detroit to take advantage of the automotive industry’s opportunities.

She felt that her parents shielded her from what was going on during the Civil Rights Movement, and she didn’t realize the impact until she applied for college. Purifoy-Seldon graduated from Cass Technological High School in 1961 and immediately enlisted in active duty for the United States Army. She was honorably discharged in 1964.

“I graduated right in the meat and heart of the Civil Rights Movement,” Purifoy-Seldon said. “I was what they called a ‘nerd.’ Nowadays, it’s a pretty good thing, but in the ’50s and ’60s, not so much. I had very good grades and was capable of being a great college student, but no one would let me in.”

After she left the army in 1964, she noticed the world was changing.

“My father had a third-grade education and was a sharecropper in Alabama before moving to Detroit to work in the automotive industry. My mother had a seventh-grade education, and her full-time job was being a homemaker. They never thought they’d have a child who would enter college. So, the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 and in 1966, the University of Detroit accepted me into their dental hygiene program.”

Purifoy-Seldon became the first African-American student in the program. She went on to get her Certificate in Dental Hygiene in 1968, followed by a Bachelor of Science in dental hygiene in 1970 and a master’s in curriculum administration from the University of Detroit. The university then hired her in 1973 into their dental hygiene faculty.

At the University of Detroit Mercy, she held positions as a tenured associate professor and assistant to the dean for special projects for the director of minority recruitment in the department of periodontology’s division of dental hygiene. Among her roles, she was tasked with recruiting students to the dentistry profession, developing the university’s diversity philosophy and providing diversity training for all faculty staff and students.

She is a founding member of various associations and the recipient of the UDM President’s Award for Excellence, along with numerous UDM faculty excellence awards.

“The army gave me the confidence, and the university gave me the opportunity,” Purifoy-Seldon reflected. “So, I came out of there being able to look people in the eye, know how to say, ‘Yes, sir. No, sir,’ (and) understanding the concepts of discipline and industry, to be able to know what’s important and how to work within a job. My parents didn’t have that experience.”

In addition to her work as a professor, Purifoy-Seldon is a beloved dental hygienist by her patients at Oak Park Dental Center. During her time as a professor, she believed that it was important that she was also working in the field while educating. She created opportunities for dental students to get hands-on experience through Community Development Block Grant funds at a dental clinic at Herman Kiefer Hospital to provide students with experience and dental care to those who could not afford it.

In 2000, Purifoy-Seldon was appointed to the Michigan State Board of Dentistry and the Commission on Dental Competency Assessments, where she serves as an examiner to determine if students were prepared to enter the field.

Purifoy-Seldon is a force within the spaces she occupies.

“She’s like the Energizer Bunny; that’s the best way I can describe her. She just hasn’t stopped,” Zarkowski joked.

Purifoy-Seldon has served as the president and currently serves as the treasurer for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Task Force, through which she added the beloved Taste Fest to Southfield’s annual MLK Peace Walk.

In 2008, the Birmingham, Michigan, Race Relations and Diversity Commission awarded her the Diversity Champion Award for her leadership in bringing different ethnic perspectives to the MLK Peace Walk and for exemplifying the philosophy of MLK.

While president of the MLK Task Force, Purifoy-Seldon visited Ixtapa Zihuatanejo, Guerrero, Mexico, in 2011, 2013 and 2014 with the United Nations to commemorate the International Day of Peace. She found herself in Mexico again in February of 2020, when her work with the MLK Task Force, Wayne State University, the University of Michigan and Marygrove College resulted in a traveling exhibit called “Pathways to Freedom.” The exhibit depicted the stories of slaves who escaped from Texas and other bordering states to Mexico for freedom because slavery was outlawed in Mexico in 1829. This research resulted in Afro-Mexicans being included in Mexico’s census.

Purifoy-Seldon is active in the veteran community and currently serves in the National Honor Guard of the Women’s Army Corps Veterans’ Association, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary National Organization and the Southfield Veterans Commission. Through her volunteer work, she helps veterans to identify and receive their benefits and helps veterans in need. She attended a breakfast event with Army Women United in 2015 at the White House, where she met President Barack Obama and then Vice President Joseph Biden. She participated in the memorial ceremony honoring veterans who sacrificed their lives for America’s freedom and placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

In response to her hard work and dedication to the Southfield Veterans Organization, then U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence of Southfield recognized her efforts and named Dec. 10, 2005, “Barbara Purifoy-Seldon Day.”

Purifoy-Seldon is passionate about the Southfield community and considers herself a “Southfield advocate.”

“I’m just positive for my city. I never want to hear anything negative about Southfield. I just want to be and do good things for the city of Southfield. The people in administration embrace me and love me. It’s amazing. (Mayor) Kenson Siver is like a brother to me. (State Sen.) Jeremy Moss, I knew him when he was 18 years old, and I can call upon him for anything.”

In 2016, Purifoy-Seldon, Siver and two Southfield city representatives traveled to South Korea in a business and culture exchange as sister cities. There they visited Camp Casey, a U.S. military base where they were educated on the history and current affairs involving the U.S. and the protection of South Korean citizens.

Purifoy-Seldon also remains active and believes the best way to stay healthy is to start caring about your mouth and dental health. She exercises three times a week, and if there’s a dance floor nearby, she can be found in the middle of it, dancing the night away. Purifoy-Seldon jokes that she’s as young as she feels.

“I don’t know what 80 feels like. I don’t know what 50 feels like,” she said.