Those We Lost — October 31

Honoring those we lost on October 31 — remembered for what they gave, and for what they left behind.

Riley L. Pitts

Born October 15, 1937 — died October 31, 1967

U.S. Army captain and Medal of Honor recipient

A native of Fallis, Oklahoma, Pitts commanded Company C, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, in Vietnam. On October 31, 1967, at Ap Dong, he led his company against fortified enemy positions and directed his men forward until he was mortally wounded. Awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously in 1968, he was the first African American officer to receive the nation’s highest military decoration.

Rosalind Cash

Born December 31, 1938 — died October 31, 1995

Stage, film, and television actor

Cash emerged from the Negro Ensemble Company and built a wide-ranging career in theater, film, and television, including The Omega Man, Klute, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and General Hospital. She resisted degrading stereotypes and demonstrated the range available to Black actresses across classical theater, science fiction, drama, and daytime television.

Samuel R. Pierce Jr.

Born September 8, 1922 — died October 31, 2000

Lawyer, judge, Treasury official, and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Born in Glen Cove, New York, Pierce served in the Army during World War II, graduated from Cornell and Cornell Law School, and became the first African American partner in a major New York law firm. He was also the first African American on the board of a Fortune 500 company. He was general counsel of the Treasury Department and served as HUD secretary from 1981 to 1989. He was the only African American cabinet secretary in the Reagan administration and helped found Freedom National Bank in Harlem.

Warren Elliot Henry

Born February 18, 1909 — died October 31, 2001

Physicist, chemist, and professor

Born in Alabama, Henry graduated from Tuskegee Institute in 1931 and earned a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1941. He taught physics to the Tuskegee Airmen, worked on radar at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, and from 1948 did pioneering research on magnetism at the Naval Research Laboratory. He later taught physics at Howard University. His research on paramagnetism and low-temperature superconductivity advanced the field despite the racial barriers he faced in scientific employment.

Willie McCovey

Born January 10, 1938 — died October 31, 2018

Major League Baseball first baseman and community figure

McCovey hit 521 home runs across a twenty-two-year career, won Rookie of the Year and National League Most Valuable Player honors, and became one of the era’s most feared left-handed hitters. The Hall of Famer became inseparable from the San Francisco Giants; McCovey Cove and the Willie Mac Award continue to carry his name.