Fitzroy Newsum, COL, USAF, Ret.

COLONEL FITZROY NEWSUM (USAF, RET.) PASSES Tuskegee Airman was renowned for his passion for flying and community involvement (Denver) Colonel Fitzroy Newsum died Saturday afternoon, January 5, 2013, surrounded by his family. Col. Newsum was 94, and had been living in a nursing home community in Centennial. Newsum, trained as an Army Air Corps pilot at a segregated airbase in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1943, was a member of the cadre of African American pilots now famously known as the Tuskegee Airmen. He was a founding member of the local Hubert L. ""Hooks"" Jones chapter of the national Tuskegee Airmen. In 1989, Col. Newsum received the Brigadier General Noel F. Parish Award for outstanding achievement on behalf of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., and along with other surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Newsum was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush in Washington D.C. in 2007. Newsum and his young family first arrived in Denver late in 1959, after the airman received orders to report to Lowry Air Force Base. After retiring from the Air Force in 1970 as Vice Commander of the 381st Strategic Missile Wing at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas, Newsum returned to Denver to pursue a public relations career at Martin Marietta Aerospace (now Lockheed Martin). While at Martin, Col. Newsum combined his love of aviation and space with community service, and received numerous awards in recognition of his contributions to countless civic and community organizations, including the Denver Urban League, Colorado Minority Engineering Association, Denver Chamber of Commerce, Metropolitan State College (Denver) Foundation, Mile High United Way, Denver Foundation, United States Space Foundation, and Arapahoe Community College Foundation. Newsum, born in New York City in 1918, was the first member of his family to be born in the United States. Raised in Barbados and Trinidad, he returned to New York in his teens. As a young boy in the Caribbean, Newsum had nurtured a passion to fly airplanes, but as a young adult was denied entry to the U.S. Army Air Corps because of his race. Col. Newsum enlisted as a member of the 369th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard in 1939. Two years later, Newsum was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Anti-Aircraft/Coast Artillery Corps and after the attack on Pearl Harbor, was assigned to duty in Hawaii. While in Hawaii, Col. Newsum was accepted into the ""experimental"" training program for African American pilots at Tuskegee, Alabama. He graduated as a multi-engine pilot in December, 1943 and was assigned to the extraordinary 477th Bombardment Group, the first all-black multi-engine group in the Army Air Corps, where he served as flight leader and squadron operations officer until 1947. Serving in Japan at the outbreak of the Korean War as a member of the 374th Troop Carrier Wing, Newsum was reassigned to the 437th Troop Carrier Wing, and participated in several combat drops before being promoted to squadron operations officer. In 1953, Newsum was transferred to Toul-Rosiere Air Base in France, as a member of the 514th Troop Carrier Wing. While in France, Col. Newsum served as Wing Inspector and Information Services Officer. Newsum would later observe that his work in information services and community relations had a profound impact on his later career. Newsum returned stateside in 1957 to Mitchell Field Air Force Base in New York, serving as operations officer and later as squadron commander of the 2233rd Air Reserve Flying Center. Newsum entered the missile career field in 1958, and seven years later was assigned to McConnell AFB as Assistant Deputy Commander for Maintenance, 381st Strategic Missile Wing. In 1967, Col. Newsum was named Vice Commander of the 381st Strategic Missile Wing. He retired from the Air Force in 1970, and returned with his family to Denver to begin his career with Martin Marietta Aerospace. In 1991, Col. Newsum was inducted into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame. With more than 5, 800 flying hours, Col. Newsum was authorized to wear the Command Missile Badge. Newsum earned an undergraduate degree from the College of Military Science at the University of Maryland, and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Oklahoma. He is survived by his wife of more than 63 years, Joan Carney Newsum; four children: Brian, Dani, Eric, and Gail; and four grandchildren: Nicholas and McKenna Newsum-Schoenberg, and Taylor and Savannah Newsum. A granddaughter, Marissa Newsum-Schoenberg, preceded him in death. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the Tuskegee Airmen Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 83395, Los Angeles, Ca., 90045. Funeral Services for Col. Newsum will be held Monday, January 14, at 10 a.m. at St. Thomas Episcopal Church (2201 Dexter Street, Denver), followed by a luncheon reception, Interment at Fort Logan National Cemetery.