Barbara Mitchell Disque, the quintessential Brenau alumna and a visionary leader on the university’s board of trustees, died at her home in Atlanta May 4, six months shy of her 75th birthday.

Disque was one of 16 women in her family to attend Brenau, a string that started with her grandmother and continuing four generations through her daughter, Tricia Sanders Heindel WC ’78 of Atlanta. Although Disque did not complete a degree when she first came to Brenau more than 50 years ago, she did return to the campus, graduating magna cum laude in 1986 with a degree in business administration – three years after she joined the university’s board of trustees.

But her ties to “her class” were strong and unmistakable, says Madeline Mabry Lippman ’53 of Bethany Beach, Del., Disque’s roommate at the Delta Delta Delta house in the early 1950s. “Members of our class stayed together, stayed in touch,” says Lippman. “Although we were geographically scattered, we were very close, and the person who more than anybody made that happen was Barbara.” Disque, Lippmann and two other members of the ’53 class – Betty Stockton Kizer and Rose McLean Whiteside – traveled to France together last year where they took at slow barge trip on the canals of the Alsace

Disque alone and with members of her family left a distinct imprimatur on many facets of the university. Her more visible contributions include driving physical improvements, like the renovation of Lockett-Mitchell Parlour in Yonah Hall and the Disque Lecture Hall in Burd Center. Behind the scenes, she and her late husband, Ken, a CPA, helped provide for the future of the university with establishment of charitable remainder trusts and other direct financial contributions.

“The Brenau family has lost one of its most loyal, loving members,” says Ed Schrader, president of the university.  “She will be sorely missed and impossible to replace.”

Barbara Disque often was a study in contradictions  –  a self-style “city gal” who spoke eloquently about how city lights excited her, but whose “favorite place on earth” was the “kissing porch” at quiet, secluded Conversation Point, her family’s second home on Lake Blue Ridges in the north Georgia mountains. She never lived more than five miles from where she grew up on fashionable West Wesley Drive in Atlanta. She attended E. Rivers Elementary and North Fulton High Schools and for the past 30 years lived in Sherwood Forest, planning to move soon to a retirement community in Peachtree Hills. Yet at the same time Disque was a world traveler, who visited more than 50 countries and decorated her home with memorabilia from Tibet, the Middle East or other countries she visited. And the breast cancer survivor who never complained about ailments pressed her Brenau buddies to take the wine-and-cheese tour to France last year although, because of her medicine regimen, she couldn’t touch the stuff.

Initially a theater major at Brenau, the young Barbara Mitchell left school to start marriage and family that included daughters, Tricia – who lives in Atlanta – and Lynda Sanders Edmunds of Brentwood, Tenn., and son, Jimmy Sanders, also from Atlanta. Her resume includes many activities that one would expect of a stereotypical southern woman – a member of Sherwood Forest Garden Club, the Atlanta Bach organization. At Covenant Presbyterian Church in Buckhead – where she was baptized as a child, married and, on May 9, eulogized – Disque sang in the choir, helped establish the multi-faith Children of Abraham organization and served as a ruling elder.

She stayed extremely loyal to her sorority as a member of the Atlanta Alumnae Chapter of Delta Delta Delta, chapter adviser at Brenau and Emory University, a member of the executive board and a founder of the Tri Delta Foundation Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust. 

In a city whose motto was once “what’s good for business is good for Atlanta,” Disque showed she had a knack for business. In 1983 she became a founding director of Metro Bank and, after its acquisition by Region’s Bank in 1996, served as its chairman until her retirement in 1997.

But she also demonstrated a belief that what was good for Atlanta’s people was good for Atlanta. She volunteered at the Atlanta Food Bank, homeless shelters and as a lobbyist to the Georgia General Assembly for Fulton County Commission. She was also a long-time volunteer for the League of Women Voters and served as that organization’s representative to The Human Services Advisory Board of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

The political activist also served on the nonpartisan merit selection panel, tasked with advising the president on prospective judges U.S. District Magistrate Court and also served a treasurer for the highly partisan campaign team for State Rep. Kathy B. Ashe.

But service to Brenau was one of her greatest legacies. The first woman to serve on the Finance and Executive committees of the trustees board, she was inducted into the University Hall of Fame in 2003. . She was a recipient of numerous distinguished service awards, including the Brenau Outstanding Alumnae Award for Service to Brenau (1993) and was inducted into the Brenau University Hall of Fame in 2003. That same year both she and her parents, Billy and Elisabeth Mitchell, were recipients of the Brenau Sullivan Award.

Disque was to be buried May 9 at Arlington Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Covenant Presbyterian Church and Brenau University.