Joseph Clyde White, Sr. (1922-2007)

Joseph White entered aviation as a cadet and college detachment student at The Tuskegee Institute. He was one of the original Tuskegee Airmen and flew as part of the 332nd Fighter Group known as the famed "The Red Tails". After the war, he taught flying and radar in Alabama and Mississippi and served as director of environmental testing at Remington Rand. White became a student at Fisk University, the University of Tennessee, Walden University, George Peabody College and the University of Minnesota earning a bachelor of science degree, two master's degrees and a doctor of philosophy degree during his lifetime. In 1959, he set up the state's first high school electronics program at Pearl High School. Mr. White often spoke at school assemblies about the famous people he had met such as first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, as a young Eagle Scout he was introduced to during the first Boy Scout Jamboree in 1937. He also met scientist George Washington Carver, who was a regular on the Tuskegee Institute campus.