[Denver] Colonel Fitzroy Newsum died January 5, 2013. Newsum was a member of the cadre of African American pilots now famously known as the Tuskegee Airmen. In 1989, Col. Newsum received the Brigadier General Noel F. Parish Award for outstanding achievement on behalf of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., and along with other surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Newsum was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President George W. Bush in Washington D.C. in 2007.

Newsum served with distinction in WWII and Korea, as a pilot and squadron operations officer. After a full career in the Air Force, he devoted his talents and witness to the Denver community and to St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

Newsum, born in New York City in 1918, earned an undergraduate degree from the College of Military Science at the University of Maryland, and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Oklahoma. He is survived by his wife of more than 63 years, Joan Carney Newsum; four children: Brian, Dani, Eric, and Gail; and four grandchildren: Nicholas and McKenna Newsum-Schoenberg, and Taylor and Savannah Newsum.