appointed to the National Park Service's Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments and later served on the board of Colonial Williamsburg. Back at Virginia State University, he was he was appointed Dean of the Graduate School in 1979 and later served as provost and vice president of academic affairs of the University from 1987 to 1989. In 1992, Toppin was honored in the Dominion series Strong Men & Women - Excellence in Leadership that honors African-American "positive role models and demonstrate leadership in their chosen field" and "someone whose achievements have made an imprint upon some facet of national or local life". The series has honored such individuals as Colin Powell, Mae Jemison, Michael Jordan, Thurgood Marshall, Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey and Reginald Lewis (a former student of his). In December 1999, the Surry County, Virginia, Historical Society and Museums called Dr. Toppin, "one of the greatest living authorities on African-American history. [who] spoke on the Civil War and the little understood post-war period of Reconstruction". On December 8, 2004, Toppin died of heart failure at the age of 76. He is buried at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia, beside his son, Edgar Toppin, Jr. Toppin once said, "I hope people would remember me for my humaneness, for being kindly to both colleagues, staff and students; for seeing the worth and potential in each person, no matter who it is or their background." Known as he was for his warm and outgoing personality, his grave reads: "He Never Met a Stranger" He was survived by his wife Antoinette Toppin, his two daughters Avis Bent and Louise Toppin and in 2005, VSU established the Edgar A. Toppin Endowment Fund. Publications Edgar A. Toppin, "Negro Emancipation in Historic Retrospect: Ohio, the Negro Suffrage Issue in Postbellum Ohio Politics", Journal of Human Relations, XI, 1963, 232–246 Edgar A. Toppin, "Humbly They Served: The Black Brigade in the Defense of Cincinnati", Journal of Negro History, XLVIII, 1963, 75–97. (About the Black Brigade of Cincinnati.) Lavinia G Dobler and Edgar A. Toppin, Pioneers and patriots: the lives of six Negroes of the Revolutionary era, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965. . Drisko, Carol F and Edgar A. Toppin, The Unfinished March the History of the Negro in the United States Reconstruction to World War I , New York, 1967. Edgar A. Toppin, Blacks in America: then and now. Illustrations by Gene Langley.