In Memoriam

Major Louis Anderson II

Major Louis Anderson II, a longtime Washingtonian and Tuskegee Airman, died on March 15, 2021, just 10 days after his 96th birthday. Mr. Anderson was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and, after high school, was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps. Following basic training at Keesler Air Field in Biloxi, Mississippi, he continued his military education as an aircraft sheet metal worker at the Air Force Technical School at Chanute Field, Illinois, where was trained as an aircraft structural mechanic. He went on to study mechanical engineering at Howard University on the G.I. Bill and, in 1973, earned a bachelor’s in Business Administration from Federal City College. In June 1948, he married Lurlene Booker and they had two sons: Major III and Keith. Mr. Anderson was employed by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service as a police officer and, after his retirement in 1984, became very active in his community. He served as a deacon at Third Baptist Church, was elected as a D.C. Government Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner and joined the East Coast Chapter of the Tuskegee Airman, Inc. later in life and became a prolific public relations speaker for the “Red Tails.”

Mr. Anderson, who was featured in last year's DCBC's Senior Saints Calendar received several honors throughout his life, including being awarded the World War II Victory Medal in 1945, and, in 2017, having the Major Anderson Tuskegee Aviation Maintenance Academy at the Baltimore/ Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport named in his honor.

On February 15, 2021, Rev. Victor Tupitza, who had been a member of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. for more than 40 years, died at his home in Burke, Virginia, at the age of 94. Mr. Tupitza was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and attended Eastern College and Seminary. He was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Manayunk in Philadelphia, from 1960 to 1966 and then became a writer for the American Baptist Churches USA in Valley Forge. His assignments while there led to travels in Central America and to the pulpits of many historic churches across the United States.

In 1979, Mr. Tupitza moved to the District, where he published Report f rom the Capital for The Baptist Joint Committee. He was also the editor of Capital Baptist for a time and a part-time member of the DCBC staff. Rev. Dr. Robert Cochran recalled that Tupitza wrote the article that introduced him to DCBC in 1994.

Rev. Victor Tupitza