North Salem’s Cyril DeGrasse Tyson, Sociologist, Educator, Activist, 89

Cyril DeGrasse Tyson, a leading figure in the development of urban social policy in New York City, and who devoted his life to the empowerment of all those who were disenfranchised, died at his home in North Salem, N.Y., on Thursday, Dec. 29. He was 89. Born in New York City in 1927 to immigrant parents from the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, he embarked on his career in public service after earning a bachelor's degree in Sociology from St. Francis College in Brooklyn and a master's degree in Social Service from Columbia University.