Rufus L. Billups, General In The Air Force, Dead At 68 Times Picayune 02-4-1996 ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Retired Maj. Gen. Rufus L. Billups, one of the first black Americans to become an Air Force general, died Tuesday of a heart attack at Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital. He was 68. During more than 30 years in the Air Force, Gen. Billups was commander of Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio in 1973-74 and commander of the Defense General Supply Center in Richmond, Va., in 1975-78. He ended his career at the Pentagon as director of logistics, plans and programs in the office of the deputy chief of staff. He retired in 1980 and moved to New Orleans, his wife's hometown. In a 1991 Black History Month talk at Murray Henderson Elementary School in Algiers, Gen. Billups urged the students to set their sights high. He recalled how he ironed shirts for graduate students at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he earned his first degree, to have money for dates. Opportunity "is what America is all about," he said. He said the high percentage of African-Americans in the U.S. military shows the military "is more geared toward equal opportunity than any other job." Rufus Lee Billups was born in Birmingham, Ala., and grew up there. He graduated in 1949 from Tuskegee, where the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the first group of black fighter pilots in the Air Force, trained. He was in the Air Force ROTC at Tuskegee and was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation. He advanced through the ranks until he was named a major general in 1978. He fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars. He spent much of his career in Germany, where he was director of transportation at the Air Force's European headquarters in 1970-73. He received a master's degree in business administration from the University of Colorado in 1957 and an honorary doctorate from Guadalupe College in Texas in 1974. After leaving the Air Force, he was a special projects manager for DUCI, vice president of R.W. Management Consulting and president of Billups Associates Management Consulting. In the Air Force, he received the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon and many other awards. He was a member of the Retired Air Force Officers Association, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Studs Club, the National Defense Transportation Association and Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Alpha Alpha Boule chapter. Survivors include his wife, Margaret C. Talton Billups; two sons, Eric Victor and Robert Adam Billups; a daughter, Geraldine Bernadette Billups; his mother, Christine Sims Billups of Birmingham; two brothers, Marvin Eddie and Reginald Durand Billups; a sister, Remitha May Oden; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. A funeral will be held Monday at 2 p.m. at Dillard University's Lawless Memorial Chapel, 2601 Gentilly Blvd. Visitation will begin at noon. Burial will be in Lake Lawn Mausoleum. Gertrude Geddes Willis Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.