Albany, NY – Lee Archer, Jr., always dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot. He read about them in books and comic strips and imagined they were brave and handsome with long white scarves billowing behind them.
He achieved his dream in 1943 when he graduated from the Tuskegee Institute for pilot training, then became one of the famous black fighter pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War Two.
Yesterday, he was among 19 U.S. veterans honored for the role higher education played in their lives at a ceremony in Albany, New York.
Brown was joined at the ceremony by fellow Tuskegee Airman and best friend Roscoe C. Brown Junior.
Brown received a doctorate from New York University in 1951. He went on to teach at the university for 26 years. He became the president of Bronx Community College in 1972.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)