Spann, who was raised in Rutherford, was a pioneering black World War II combat pilot recognized for his bravery escorting bombers over enemy territory in Europe in the 1940s.
Calvin Spann, a New Jersey native who flew 26 missions over Nazi Germany as one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen, died at his home in Texas Sunday, according to NBC New York. He was 90.
Spann, who was raised in Rutherford, was a pioneering black World War II combat pilot recognized for his bravery escorting bombers over enemy territory in Europe in the 1940s.
He once said watching the planes take off from Teterboro Airport inspired him to become a pilot. He volunteered for the Army Air Corps and was sent to Tuskegee, Alabama to join the first group of African-American military aviators in the history of the U.S. Armed Forces, credited with breaking down racial barriers with their valor and skill.
"I was determined, because from the very beginning — I don't know why or where it came from — but the rumor was out there that because I was black, I couldn't learn," he said in a 2012 interview with The Record newspaper. "I was determined to prove that wrong."
He later retired to Texas, where he celebrated his 90th birthday at the end of August.
He was inducted into the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame in Teterboro in 2006 and received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007. In 2012, he saw his story rendered on the big screen when he attended a premiere of the George Lucas film "Red Tails," which dramatized the Tuskegee airmen's tale.
Memorial services are being arranged in Texas and New Jersey, his family told the NBC affiliate in Fort Worth.
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