A follow-up article from Florida Today:
From:
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/200 ... dies+at+88
August 22, 2009
Tuskegee airman, judge dies at 88
BY R. NORMAN MOODY
FLORIDA TODAY
PHOTO CAPTION:
Robert Decatur of Titusville, a civil rights activist and retired judge, asked people to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." (For FLORIDA TODAY)
If you go:
A memorial service for Robert Decatur will be at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Teresa Catholic Church in Titusville. Services are by Newcomer Funeral Home, 269-6000.
TITUSVILLE -- Asked once how he would like to be remembered, Tuskegee airman and retired Judge Robert Decatur replied, "Like my father said, 'Always walk as a man, and do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and always remember the fundamentals of human dignity.' "
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Family, friends and fellow Tuskegee Airmen -- the U.S. contingent of black combat pilots during World War II -- said the longtime Titusville resident will be remembered as a civil rights activist; as one of the first black lawyers in Cleveland, Ohio, who became a law school professor; as a humanitarian; and as a loving grandfather.
Decatur died Wednesday of natural causes. He was 88.
"It's regrettable," said Noel Harris, a Tuskegee airman from Merritt Island. "I considered Judge Decatur an exceptional individual. He was very intelligent."
Daughters Dawne Decatur and Diane Tatum said they moved to Titusville a couple of years ago to be near their father, who emphasized to them as he got older the importance of family.
"He was happy we were here," she said. "He didn't have to worry about us."
In addition to his daughters, Decatur leaves behind a son, Randolph Decatur; seven grandchildren; and his widow, Rose Wilson-Decatur.
Dawne Decatur said that even in his older age, her father wanted to continue learning to fly the latest aircraft. He often told his children stories about his time in the Army Air Corps and the Air Force and about how he met their mother, the late Geraldine Decatur.
"He actually met my mother when he was at Tuskegee," Dawne Decatur said. "He said there was a lot of discrimination at the time." The Tuskegee Airmen were the United States' first black combat pilots, and they protected bombers over Europe during World War II.
He was known as Robert "Bobby" Decatur during his years as magistrate of probate court in Cleveland, his daughter Diane Tatum said.
Sixty years after World War II, in March 2007, the Tuskegee Airmen, including Decatur, were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
"I'm sad," said fellow Tuskegee airman Robert Griffin of Viera. "That's a fellow airman that has passed."
In a story published in Onyx Magazine, Decatur was asked how he wanted to be remembered. His response was, in part, to remember to "do onto others as you would have them do onto you."
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Titusville missionary Joe Hurston, who is expected to speak at Decatur's memorial service, said he is saddened by his own personal loss but is rejoicing that the retired judge is at home with the Lord.
It was Decatur who in 2004 prompted Hurston back into nearly full-time mission work. Hurston was taking a short hiatus from making overseas trips to deliver water purifiers when Decatur called him one morning after flash floods in Haiti and the Dominican Republic had claimed thousands of lives.
"He called me up and said we have to do something about those poor people in Haiti," Hurston recalled. "I said, 'Judge, don't do this to me right now.' And he responded by saying, 'God tapped me on the shoulder.' "
That phone call changed Joe and Cindy Hurston's lives.
"We have been around the world 10 times since then delivering 640 water purifiers to 35 countries," Joe Hurston said. "There is no question that Judge Decatur lit a fire under us."
FLORIDA TODAY staff writer John A. Torres contributed to this report. Contact Moody at 242-3651 or
nmoody@floridatoday.com.
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