At Age 95 In Virginia Beach Noted Area Tuskegee Airman Passes

Special To the Guide

VIRGINIA BEACH
Thurman Edward Spriggs, 95, a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen and an Educator at NSU,  died  December 12.

According to his family, Spriggs died quietly at his home in Virginia Beach, VA.

The Des Moines, Iowa, native is remembered for his historic military service as one of the country’s first Black military aviators to break the color barrier during World War II.

He also is remembered for his tenure at Norfolk State University where he taught from 1965 to 1986. At NSU, he served as professor in and chair of what is now the Department of Physics, and he served briefly as Chair of the Division of Natural Sciences, now the College of Science, Engineering and Technology.

In 1941, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in the 9th Calvary, nicknamed the Buffalo Soldiers. Then in 1944 he was admitted into the Army Air Corps, where he graduated flight school as a fighter pilot in the class of 45-H-Single Engine of the Tuskegee Airmen. He mustered out as a Lieutenant, serving at Stockton Air Base in California.

Springs met his future wife, Julienne Henderson of Norfolk, Virginia while she was stationed at Fort Des Moines, Iowa.  They married December 21, 1945 in Norfolk at Grace Episcopal Church and remained married for 63 years until her death in March 2009.

After leaving the military, both Spriggs took advantage of the GI Bill to attend what was then the Norfolk Division of Virginia State College, and is now Norfolk State University.
Spriggs went on to earn a Master’s degree in physics from Howard University and a Ph.D. in physics from The Catholic University of America. He was the oldest living alum of the physics department of Howard University.

The Spriggs family relocated from Washington, D.C., to Hampton Roads in 1965 where he began teaching at Norfolk State. His wife, Julienne, began an award-winning career as a teacher in the Norfolk Public Schools System. In 1986, he retired as NSU professor emeritus.

For his service as a Tuskegee Airman, along with the other Iowa Tuskegee Airmen, he was inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame in 2006, and the Iowa African-American Hall of Fame in 2010.

He is survived by his brother Lacey (and his wife Delores) of Des Moines, and his daughters Patricia and Karen (and her husband Michael Baldwin) of Virginia Beach and son William (and his wife Jennifer) of Great Falls, Virginia, and his grandchildren, William Thurman Spriggs and Rosezetta and Joseph Baldwin, and many nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews.