Miller,
Baker,
Edwards:
In Focus
TSU Trio
Leading
Aviation
“ WHAT MADE TSU SUCH A MEMORABLE PLACE FOR ME WAS BECAUSE
OUR PROFESSORS MADE SURE YOU WERE GOING TO LEARN SOMETHING
WHETHER YOU WANTED TO OR NOT ”
— VERNON BAKER —
BY KENDRICK CALLIS
Office of Communications
Since 1927, Texas Southern University has
demanded “Excellence in Achievement” from its
students, alumni and faculty. The trio of Aviation
Science and Technology graduates Perry Miller,
Vernon Baker and Captain Roscoe Edwards has
not only exemplified “Excellence” in the aviation
industry, but they have “Achieved” outstanding
distinctions of merit along the way.
As some of the first graduates of the Aviation
Science and Technology program that began at TSU
in 1987, Miller, Baker and Edwards have, through
their work, effectively laid the foundation for those
graduates that followed them by establishing
TSU as a producer of highly qualified aviation
management and flight professionals.
Despite coming from different backgrounds
and having distinctly different personalities, after
crossing paths at TSU in the early 90’s, these three
classmates forged a relationship and camaraderie
that still exists today. Perry Miller, who was the
academic standout, now serves as General Manager
of Houston Hobby Airport; Vernon Baker, the nontraditional student who sacrificed his early mornings
sleeping in his car after working the night shift,
served as the Federal Security Director for Hobby
Airport, Ellington Field and the Southeast Texas
Regional airport in Beaumont; and Roscoe
Edwards, the personality that kept things
stirred up, spent 30 years as an airline
pilot and trained, recruited and strongly
encouraged other students to follow a path of
success.
Considering that African Americans make
up only about 7 percent of the aviation
professionals in America and one percent or
less of pilots in America, it’s clear to see that
their time as students at TSU was well spent.
“What made TSU such a memorable place
for me was because our professors made sure
you were going to learn something whether you
wanted to or not,” said Baker. “They made sure
that when you came out into the field you would
be able to participate and perform at a high level.”
Held together by professors who expected
nothing but their best, each of them found the
aviation program under different terms.
Miller, a very smart and academically competitive
student, was singled out by the founder of the
Aviation Science and Technology program, Dr. Naomi
Ledé because of his academic standing as a honors
student. Having had his interest peaked with airplanes
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