The Associated Press

ATLANTA

&8212; Lt. Colonel Charles “Chuck” Dryden, one of the last surviving World War II pioneering black pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen, has died in Atlanta. He was 87.

Dryden died on Tuesday of natural causes, according to Roger Neal, a spokesman for the National Museum of Patriotism in Atlanta. Dryden was on the museum’s board of directors.

In 1998, Dryden was inducted into the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.

Dryden served 21-years in the military and retired in 1962. He was also a professor of air science at Howard University.

Dryden’s autobiography, “A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman” was published by the University of Alabama Press in 1997.

Dryden has three sons and is survived by his wife, Marymal Morgan Dryden.