Monrovia High Honors Tuskegee Airmen Alumnus

MONROVIA, CA — Leroy Criss soared through the skies as one of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II, but before that he walked the halls as a student at Monrovia High School.

Criss attended classes at the school in the early 1940s when it was known as Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte High School before he joined the military.

The school this month honored its late alumnus with a memorial plaque commemorating his life and achievements as one of the nation's first Black military pilots, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. The men of the 332nd Fighter Group, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, were the first Black American military aviators in the U.S. armed forces and fought in World War II.

The plaque's unveiling was a low-key affair because of Los Angeles County's COVID-19 safety restrictions, but a more formal ceremony is expected to take place sometime after California fully lifts coronavirus limits on June 15, school officials told the Tribune.

A group of former students spearheaded the effort to hang the plaque in the school’s administrative building after they heard Criss’ story several years ago during a Black History Month talk on campus, the paper reported.

Criss died in 2008 at the age of 82.

His daughter, Renee Criss, told the Tribune that her father would have been grateful for the plaque. “He would have the biggest smile on his face because he just didn’t realize how important he was,” Renee Criss said. “He would be so happy, and when we received the plaque, we were in tears.”