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Harold H. Brown (1924-2023)

Harold H. Brown (1924-2023)

PORT CLINTON — Harold H. Brown, a pilot in the renowned Tuskegee Airmen taken prisoner in Nazi-held territory during World War II, who spoke widely of his experiences after careers in the military and academe, died Jan. 12 in Admiral’s Pointe Nursing and Rehabilitation, Huron, Ohio. He was 98.

He suffered complications of vascular disease, said his wife, Marsha Bordner. 

In October, he’d attended a performance at Heidelberg University of To Rise Above: A Journey of a Tuskegee Airman, a jazz narrative by composer Michael Shirtz written in tribute to Mr. Brown. He was on the field in September for a commemoration during a Bowling Green State University football game. 

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“He would never give up,” Ms. Bordner said. “That characterized his entire life, from the time he decided he wanted to fly airplanes in the sixth grade. He was singular in his focus.”

He was among the last survivors of the Tuskegee Airmen, pilots who trained at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In the segregated military of World War II, the all-Black unit of the Army Air Corps got scant recognition, even as its members flew successful missions over Europe. Thousands more served with the airmen in ground support roles.

He settled in Ottawa County’s Catawba Island Township more than a decade ago. He retired in 1986 as vice president of academic affairs at Columbus State Community College. He later was an interim vice president of Clark State Community College in Springfield, Ohio. He retired at age 88 as a consultant for what is now the State Board of Career Colleges and Schools.

Mr. Brown and Ms. Bordner, who retired as president of Terra State Community College in Fremont, collaborated on his 2017 memoir, Keep Your Airspeed Up: the Story of a Tuskegee Airman.

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“It brings back all kinds of memories. Good memories, bad memories,” Mr. Brown said of the book to an audience in 2017 at the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton. “It reminds me of how close I’ve come to dying on more than one occasion.”

As a pilot, his duty was to strafe targets to protect bombers. It was during a strafing run in March, 1945 — his 30th mission — that shrapnel from an exploding locomotive struck his plane, and he was forced to bail out over Linz, Austria.

“That was rather traumatic,” Mr. Brown recalled in 2017. “Then the realization hits, ‘Hey, there's a war going on and you just got shot down whether you like it or not, so how are you going to survive?’”

A violent group of residents seized him and were going to hang him when the pilot was saved by a constable who intervened and took him to a prisoner of war camp.

“They were extremely angry and they decided they were going to kill me,” he said. “They made it perfectly clear to me they were going to murder me. It's hard to explain that moment other than you're trying to accept the fact that in a few minutes you may die, but at the same time you're thinking, ‘Hey, I'm not ready to die. What choices do I have? I can't run. There's no place to run to, and I can't hide. I'm just out there.’

“Interesting enough, when they were going to hang me there was a constable in the back. He put his hand on my shoulder and stepped in front of me, put out his rifle, and started pulling the people back and stopped them. This lone guy is facing 40 angry people with his rifle and they're screaming and hollering in German I can't understand. Those were probably all of his friends; he might have even had some of his own relatives in that crowd, but he kept them back.”

The war ended less than two months later. After he and other war prisoners were liberated, Mr. Brown returned to Tuskegee, where he served as a flight instructor. He then was sent to Lockbourne Army Airfield near Columbus, which had become home to the Tuskegee Airmen’s 332nd Fighter Group of which Mr. Brown was a member. 

He continued his career in what had become the Air Force, serving in Japan during the Korean War. He later had a post at the Strategic Air Command during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Mr. Brown retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel. He’d received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Ohio University while in the service. He later received a master’s degree and doctorate in vocational and technical education from Ohio State University.

He didn’t speak much of his wartime experiences during his civilian career. In recent years, he aimed to keep the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen current.

“He was a man of great integrity and great focus. He loved telling kids his story,” Ms. Bordner said.

He was on hand in Washington when the airmen received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007. He attended a screening in January, 2012, in Toledo of the George Lucas-produced film, Red Tails — the name the airmen often were called, because of the red paint on the tails of the P-51 Mustangs they flew.

“What we did was to pretty much change the course of history in terms of civil rights and everything that came after it,” Mr. Brown told The Blade then. “There was an awful lot of history in terms of breaking down barriers.”

He was born Aug. 19, 1924, in Minneapolis to Allie and John Brown, who were among the African Americans to take part in the Great Migration northward from the South.  He was a 1942 graduate of North High School in Minneapolis and enlisted in the military, determined to become a pilot. After flight training at the Tuskegee Institute, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1944.

“What Dr. Brown embodied was that he continued to rise above discrimination,” said Gregory Edmonds, president of the Ohio Memorial Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen. “He always pressed the fact that, follow your dreams, follow what you wanted to do, don’t let others stand in your way.”

He was a member of Firelands Presbyterian Church in Port Clinton. 

He was formerly married to Maxine Gilmore.

Surviving are his wife, Marsha Stanfield Bordner, whom he married July 3, 2010; daughter, Karen Jackson; stepson, Jonathan Bordner, and two grandsons.

A celebration of life event will begin at 12:30 p.m. March 4 at the Liberty Aviation Museum, Port Clinton. Arrangements are by Groff Funeral Home and Crematory, Sandusky.

The family suggests tributes to CAF Rise Above in Red Wing, Minn., which promotes the history of the Tuskegee Airmen and Women Airforce Service Pilots; the Bordner-Brown Scholarship in care of Terra State Community College Foundation in Fremont, or Firelands Presbyterian Church in care of the mission committee.

First Published February 1, 2023, 5:00 a.m.

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FEA TUSKEGEE30 Harold Brown, a former Tuskegee Airmen pilot, stands in front of an American flag at the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton on July 24, 2017.  (The Blade/Kurt Steiss)  Buy Image
FEA TUSKEGEE30 Harold Brown, a former Tuskegee Airman, poses in 2017 at the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton with a plane similar to the craft he flew during his training.  (The Blade/Kurt Steiss)  Buy Image
Harold Brown places a wreath during the 2012 Memorial Day program at Waite High School.  (BLADE)
Harold Brown, left, greets U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur as the Rev Otis J. Gordon, Jr., looks on during the 2012 Memorial Day program at Waite High School.  (The Blade/Amy E. Voigt)  Buy Image
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