I. M. Terrell, 1944

Titus Hall grew up poor, the son of a single mother. He says his life might have turned out very differently were it not for a chance encounter at church. Titus was about 10-years-old when Tuskegee Airman Leonard Jackson, fresh out of flight training, showed up for Sunday service. “That was it for me,” Hall says. “That uniform, those silver wings on the lapel. But it was also the young man himself. He looked like someone you wanted to emulate.”

Hall did just that. After graduating from I.M. Terrell, he enrolled at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and joined the ROTC. He was a distinguished graduate of the program and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering.

In 1952, Hall entered active duty with the U.S. Air Force. From 1958 to 1964, he flew B-47 bombers with frequent missions to Guam and Alaska. In 1964, he was assigned to the Space Systems Division in Los Angeles. Hall later became executive officer to the commander of the Space and Missile Systems Organization (now the Air Force Space Division). While in Los Angeles, Hall earned a master’s degree in systems engineering management from the University of Southern California. His next assignment was Vietnam, where he flew more than 100 combat missions.

After Vietnam, General Hall held a succession of powerful posts, including deputy for reconnaissance and electronic warfare systems at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and commander of the Lowry Technical Training Center at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado. He was promoted to major general in 1981.

Hall’s many awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star. It was a young Tuskegee Airman who sparked Hall’s desire to succeed. It was a determined bunch of teachers at I.M. Terrell who helped him do it. “They were great role models,” he says. “Mrs. Hazel Harvey Peace (former I.M. Terrell teacher and vice-principal) used to say that teachers should do more than tell students what to do. They should set examples for how students should live their lives.”

Wall of Fame Trivia: The photos of Major General Titus C. Hall and Mrs. Hazel Harvey Peace are side-by-side on the Wall.

>> Visit the wall of fame