Camille Cosby

Camille Olivia Cosby ( Hanks; born March 20, 1944) is an American television producer, philanthropist, and the wife of comedian Bill Cosby.

The character of Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show was based on her.

Cosby has avoided public life, but has been active in her husband's businesses as a manager, as well as involving herself in academia and writing.

Camille Olivia Hanks was born on March 20, 1944, in Washington D.C., to Guy A. Hanks Sr. and Catherine C. Hanks and grew up in Norbeck, Maryland, just outside Washington.

She is the oldest of four children.

Cosby's father was a chemist at Walter Reed General Hospital and her mother worked at a nursery.

Both her parents had college educations, with her father earning a graduate degree from Fisk University and her mother earning an undergraduate degree from Howard University.

Cosby attended private Catholic schools.

First, she attended St. Cyprian's, followed by St. Cecilia's Academy.

Cosby stated, "'The Oblate Sisters were my first formal educators. They did what all educators should do, that is, convey the knowledge of wide-ranging possibilities, and, more importantly, give a stamp of self-value for every single student.'"After high school, Cosby studied psychology at the University of Maryland, where she met Bill Cosby.

Beginning at the start of the 1980s, Cosby and her husband donated $100,000 to Central State University (CSU), a historically black university in Ohio, with a second gift of $325,000 in 1987.

In June 1987, Johnnetta Cole of Howard University in Washington, D.C., presented Cosby with a Doctor of Humane Letters, an honorary doctoral degree.

In January 1987, the Cosbys donated $1.3 million to Fisk University.

In November 1988, they donated $20 million to Atlanta's Spelman College, a top Historically Black women's college.

According to The New York Times, the gift was the largest donation to a black college in American history.

The college has since named the five-story 92,000-square-foot Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center after her, as well as designating a Camille Cosby Day.

A few months after the Spelman donation, Cosby and her husband donated $800,000 to Meharry Medical College and $750,000 to Bethune-Cookman University.

In September 1989, CSU held the "Camille and Bill Cosby Cleveland Football Classic" in honor of their contributions to the school.

In 1990, Cosby earned a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, followed by a Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) in 1992.

In 1990, Cosby earned a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, followed by an Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) in 1992.

In July 1992, during a gala held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women awarded Cosby the Candace Award, a recognition of minority women who have made valuable contributions to their communities.

Cosby supports African-American literature, and has written forewords for several books: in 1993, for Thelma Williams' Our Family Table: Recipes and Food Memories from African-american Life Models; in 2009, for Dear Success Seeker: Wisdom from Outstanding Women by Michele R. Wright; and in 2014, for The Man from Essence: Creating a Magazine for Black Women, a book by Edward Lewis of Essence.

Cosby was co-producer for the Broadway play Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, based on the 1993 book of the same name by Sarah "Sadie" L. Delany and A. Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany with Amy Hill Hearth.

In 1994, Cosby released Television's Imageable Influences: The Self-Perception of Young African-Americans, a book that "dramatically charts the damaging impact of derogatory images of African Americans produced in our media establishments".

The book was originally intended to be the subject of her thesis for her doctoral degree.

Following the success of the play, Cosby acquired the film, stage and television rights to the story and later acted as executive producer for the 1999 television movie of the same name.

Cosby's history of philanthropy includes donations to schools and educational foundations.

Her philanthropic memberships include Operation PUSH, The United Negro College Fund, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Council of Negro Women, and Jesse Jackson's National Rainbow Coalition.

Cosby worked with David C. Driskell on his book The Other Side of Color: African American Art in the Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr., which focused on the Cosbys' art collection in 2001.

In 2001, Cosby was a co-founder of the National Visionary Leadership Project, a group whose mission is to "develop the next generation of leaders by recording, preserving, and sharing the stories of extraordinary African American elders".

Together, Cosby and Renee Poussaint edited A Wealth of Wisdom: Legendary African American Elders Speak in 2004.

In April 2005, Cosby donated $2 million to St. Frances Academy, a Black Catholic high school in Baltimore.

Because of the donation, the school could endow 16 scholarships in Cosby's name.

In a 2014 interview with Oprah Winfrey, she said:

"'I became keenly aware of myself in my mid-thirties. I went through a transition. I decided to go back to school, because I had dropped out of college to marry Bill when I was 19. I had five children, and I decided to go back. I didn't feel fulfilled educationally. I dropped out of school at the end of my sophomore year. So I went back, and when I did, my self-esteem grew. I got my master's, then decided to get my doctoral degree. Education helped me to come out of myself.'"

Cosby has avoided public life.

She acted as manager for her husband and has been depicted as a "shrewd businesswoman".

During an interview with Ebony, Bill Cosby stated: "People would rather deal with me than with Camille. She's rough to deal with when it comes to my business."

She also "help[ed] in the development of her husband's material", including suggestions for The Cosby Show, such as suggesting the Huxtable family be middle- rather than working-class.

The character of Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show was based on her.