Dr. Gloria (Brown) Melton was born October 1947 and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. She received her B.A. from Rhodes College (Formerly Southwester at Memphis) and at 21 she left the south to pursue her M.A. at Northern Illinois University where she met her future husband, Willie Melton. The couple married in DeKalb, Illinois in 1972, and subsequently relocated to the Pacific Northwest. In 1976 they moved to Houghton Michigan, where Willie joined the Michigan Tech community as a professor of sociology.

Gloria received her PhD in American History with an emphasis on black history from Washington State University in 1982, completing her dissertation on “Blacks in Memphis, 1920-1955.” She took an active role in the local community and the Michigan Tech Community as a visiting instructor in social sciences beginning in 1980, and as a lecturer in the local area on subjects concerning Black History and ethnic relations. Melton also worked as a consultant at MTU in developing a proposal for the minority student service program. Additional volunteer work included assisting in the Houghton Elementary School Library, serving as an Olympics of the Mind Coach, and President of the Michigan Tech Nursery Center Board. All while raising two children, Jacarl and Alicia. In September of 1987, Dr. Gloria B. Melton joined the Student Affairs Office when President Dale F. Stein appointed her as Coordinator of Minority Student Services. On August 20, 1989 she was promoted to Dean of Students and served in this role until her retirement on August 31, 2011, after 24 years of service in the Student Affairs office.