E.W. Taylor, architect, Tuskegee Airman

Edward W. Taylor, a World War II Tuskegee Airman who later became an architect, died from heart failure on March 10 at Seasons Hospice at Sinai Hospital. The Gwynn Oak resident was 91. Edward Walter Taylor was the son of Elbert Taylor and Rebecca Mariano Taylor. He was born in Baltimore and raised on Emory Street.

After graduating in 1944 from Dunbar High School, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces and served as a radioman with the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the all AfricanAmerican unit that was trained at Moton Field at Tuskegee, Ala. He was discharged in 1946.

He had also been a member of the Civil Air Patrol.

In 1950 he graduated from Hampton Institute, now Hampton University, in Hampton, Va., with a bachelor’s degree in architecture and engineering.

He pursued additional graduate work in engineering, city planning and vocational education planning at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, College Park, and at the University of Pittsburgh.

Mr. Taylor taught architectural and mechanical drawing at what is now Carver Vocational-Technical High School, and during the 1980s and 1990s owned his own architectural firm, ATTI Consultants Inc., in Baltimore.

“He was also affiliated with Henry L. Livas Associates, Maryland’s first registered minority architectural firm, as well as Sutton Campbell and Associates as an associate and Baltimore office manager,” said his niece, Benita Turner, of Pikesville.

Mr. Taylor designed Southern Baptist Church on Chester Street in East Baltimore and was a consultant to the city’s Department of Vocational Education, NASA, HUD, the Tanzania government and many community associations.

He also lectured widely, including at Coppin State University and at Baltimore, Catonsville and Howard community colleges.

Mr. Taylor was involved as a member or consultant to the Howard Park Civic Association, Harford Road Business Association, East Baltimore Community Corp., Maryland Economic Development Corp., United Negro College Fund and the Hampton Alumni Association.

Since 1981, he had been an active member of Concord Baptist Church, where he served with the Sunday School Youth Department, the Laymen’s League, the New Membership Committee, adult Bible study, the deacon ministry and others.

He had served as chairman of the trustee ministry, vice chair of the Christian Education Committee and had been president of the White’s Memorial/Fullwood Foundation Scholarship Ministry. He also had been director of the Mission Board of Christian Education.

Mr. Taylor’s role extended beyond his own church and included work with the Baptist Congress of Christian Education and the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education.

“He had no hobbies, everything revolved around church,” his niece said.

His wife of 59 years, the former Alene Lassiter, a seamstress, died in 2011.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at his church, 5204 Liberty Heights Ave.

In addition to his niece, he is survived by several cousins.