Dr. Stwart B. Fulbright (NCCU)

DURHAM, NC— Stewart Fulbright, a trailblazing black educator who piloted a bomber during World War II as one of the Tuskegee Airmen and later served as the first dean of the North Carolina Central University School of Business, has died, He was 92.

His son, Edward, says Fulbright died in Durham, N.C., on New Year’s Day after a short illness. A funeral is planned for Saturday at Covenant Presbyterian Church.

Born in Springfield, Mo., in 1919, Fulbright enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943. He was one of about 1,000 men trained in Tuskegee, Ala., as the first black pilots, navigators and bombardiers in the U.S. military.

Fulbright worked at NCCU from 1947 until his retirement in 1982, becoming the first dean of the business school in 1972.

Courtesy of the Associated Press