Horace E. C. Bellamy, 97, died peacefully on Thursday, June 17, 2021. Horace Esmond Candace Bellamy was born to Isa G. Gooding Bellamy and Parke Bellamy in Toronto, Canada. His parents had emigrated to Canada from Barbados. Horace's middle names were chosen for a British poet (Esmond) and the Queen of the Ethiopians (Candace). He was the third of Isa and Parke's five children: Elsa, Iris, Horace, Glen, and Joyce. Despite his education, as a Black man, the best job available to him was as a Pullman porter.  It paid him a steady wage, offered opportunities for travel, but it required very long work hours and periods away from home. As a boy, Horace's mother would send him out to help his father on the trains, so that Parke could return home sooner. Young Horace cherished these moments with his father, as Parke's grueling work schedule significantly limited his time with his family. Horace was named by his father the "man of the house" whenever he was away and he was expected to take care of his mother and sisters. He would say later in life that this experience taught him early "how to care for women" which he then taught his sons by his example. Horace graduated from high school while the world was at war. He felt it his duty to do his part, so in 1942, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Though he'd never before flown a plane, he scored high on the placement test and he was trained as a pilot. To his knowledge he was the first and the only Black pilot in the Canadian Air Force when he entered in 1942. He flew the de Havilland Mosquito fighter bomber plane. Unusual in that the plane was made mostly of wood, the Mosquito, was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world at that time. Horace flew in the European theater and was shot down twice. He was returned to his base with the help of the French resistance and continued serving until the war ended in 1945. Following the War, like most WWII vets he refused for many years to speak about the war.

Upon his return home Horace went to the University of Toronto to study engineering. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts. Even as a combat veteran the best job available to him as a Black man was still that of a Pullman porter. Thus, having experienced his share of racism in Canada both in and out of the military, Horace decided to emigrate to the United States to join the Civil Rights movement. Inspired by the fact that there were Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the US, he planned to spend a year at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) to complete his engineering degree and then continue on to Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to attend medical school. He moved to Hampton in 1951 and pursued a degree in construction and engineering. While in a physics class, some of the students were struggling to solve a problem. A pretty young woman asked, "Isn't there anyone in this class who can figure this out?" Someone in the group said, "Bellamy knows all this." When she asked, "Who's Bellamy?" they pointed to the man sitting in the back of the class doing crossword puzzles. Almost on cue, he answered, in his deep baritone voice, "Did someone call my name?" Lillian was a senior and she needed to pass the class in order to graduate. She was struggling with the concepts of the applied math course so Horace tutored the pretty girl and her friends and eventually asked her out. For their first date he took her to listen to the opera--with a group of friends all of whose rapt attention was focused on the opera playing on the radio. The pretty young woman, Lillian fell in love with both opera and Horace, her handsome tutor. Thanks to his tutoring, Lillian passed and graduated and Horace's Tuskegee plan went out the window and he stayed in Hampton. Horace and Lillian married in September of 1953. Horace ceded his medical school dreams to start working to support his young family and encourage Lillian in her educational pursuits. He once said, ''I felt my responsibility as a married person outweighed finishing my education.'' Segregation continued dogging the newly wed couple. Their first home was a trailer on private land off Shell Road. ''Because of segregated conditions, we couldn't live in a regular trailer park,'' Bellamy said. ''There were no trailer parks for blacks.'' Eventually, the Bellamy family moved to a ranch style house on Ivy Home Road near three bodies of water - Hampton Roads Harbor, the Hampton River and Sunset Creek. Large pine trees shade the front yard. And around back, Horace tended to collards and other vegetables in an 8-foot-square garden. To support his new family Horace worked briefly in construction engineering before moving to NACA (now NASA). Horace and two other men were the first Black men accepted into a NASA apprentice school at Langley. He worked on several wind tunnels during the course of his career at NASA. He worked on the transonic and supersonic wind tunnels and was the "boss" of the 7 x 10 wind tunnel. He also worked with the famous "hidden figure" Katherine Johnson. At the time of his retirement in 1987, he was a supervisory engineering technician, overseeing operation of the research agency's wind tunnels at Langley. Sadly, racism had once again reared its ugly head when he was passed over for a promotion to keep his supervisor "happy." He shared that "no one cared that I had a family to raise or that I had skills beyond what I was doing. All that mattered was that the supervisor not upset his buddy by promoting me from one department to another." Horace channeled his anger and disappointment into a side business of purchasing homes cheaply, renovating them himself and renting them. This provided him supplemental income so that he could ensure a good standard of living for his family and pay for his boys to attend college. By then he and Lillian were the proud parents of Robert and David, their "miracle" children. Due to medical challenges, Lillian was not expected to be able to bear children. However, God blessed them with two boys. Lillian and Horace were working parents. She at Ft. Eustis and Horace at NASA. Noticing that Lillian arrived home from work much later than he, unlike most husbands of that time, Horace felt it would be unfair for her to have to cook once she got home. Consequently, he taught himself how to cook. To him cookbooks were just another type of instruction manual so he simply put his engineering skills to use to feed his family. He became the family cook and Lillian only cooked twice a year, Christmas and Thanksgiving. Horace adored his beloved "Lil." She was the outgoing social butterfly and he the reserved, quiet introvert. Thanks to Lil, the elegant, handsome couple became fairly well known on the local Hampton scene and they often held formal dinners at their home. Horace, of course, did the cooking as well as baking. He showered her with gifts and Robert stated that he learned how to properly treat women by watching his father. Robert recalled how Horace would take young Robert with him to do the grocery shopping on Saturday mornings to ensure that Lillian could sleep in peacefully. As a father, Horace was a strict disciplinarian who set high standards for his two boys Robert and David. His deep voice and stature made him an imposing figure to the boys' friends. In describing their father, Robert and David, shared that Horace "commanded respect from both children and adults though he was not necessarily the tallest or biggest person in the room. He simply had an air of self-confidence about him." The "air" would remain throughout Horace's life and he rightly became the de facto elder statesman whenever he entered a room. The boys shared that their father taught them to be "good people, good citizens and the values of courtesy, respect and honesty." He taught them to respect themselves and others and in turn they too would earn respect from those around them. Robert shared that on their Saturday morning shopping trips, when he'd run ahead of his father toward the door, Horace would call out to him to stop and hold the door to allow the ladies to enter first. He'd also send him to help the women shoppers struggling with their bags. He said his father stressed to him the importance of being a "gentleman" at all times. Robert shared that he always felt "loved" by his father and he "never judged" or "put [him]down" though he often did not agree with his choices. Robert said, "he allowed me to grow into my own and accepted me, flaws and all, without reservation. Maybe because he saw a lot of himself in me. Though I was close to my mother I was definitely my father's son." David shared, "when I was younger I was my mother's son but as I grew into a man I became my father's son. I understood him better. We got along better. I identified with him. What struck me the most, especially in the last 20 years, was watching him with my mother as she declined." David shared that in his younger years, he didn't always understand the slights that may occur between a husband and wife. However, watching Horace care for Lillian during her illness brought him to an even higher level of respect and admiration for his father. "As she became more and more dependent on him, I saw vividly how much in love with her he was. He dedicated years to taking care of her because no one else could ever take care of her like he would." It was a true example for him of unconditional love. Family was always Horace's first priority. This was something he'd learned from his father and a legacy he passed on to his children. He loved his sons Robert and David fiercely and it showed in the way his eyes lit up when he spoke of them. He was very proud not only of their accomplishments but especially of the men they had become. He often stated how thankful he was that God had blessed him and in spite of his own perceived "shortcomings" they were good, upstanding men. He also loved his granddaughter Clare tremendously as well as her daughter Alanna. One of his last long distance trips was to Arizona for Alanna's baptism.

Horace lived his faith. A practicing Catholic throughout his life, Lil joined him in the faith early in their relationship. Though Horace did not explicitly speak with them about faith, it was his lived example that impacted them the most. Not only did they worship faithfully, it was understood that they were to also become involved in the life of the church. For a short period they were parishioners at St. Mary Star of the Sea while a then Fr. Walter Sullivan was pastor. He would go on to become the eleventh bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. When the boys were pre-teens, the family became one of the founding families of the newly formed Immaculate Conception parish. The boys served as altar servers, ushers and were members of the folk group music ministry. Horace was a lector, Eucharistic Minister, served in the ministry to the homeless, A Night's Welcome and through the establishment of the H.E.L.P. organization. Horace was the first Black man inducted into the Knights of Columbus in the state of Virginia. He went on to become a 4th degree, a Grand Knight of Council 511, and to hold a state level office. Horace suspended his involvement in parish ministries for a time while Lillian's mental faculties and physical capabilities continued to decline so that he could provide full time care to her. He felt his primary ministry at that time was to Lillian. He shunned assistance and took care of her himself because he felt it was his responsibility to do so, "I married Lil and promised to be with her in sickness and in health and this is what I'm doing." To others, his renouncing of all extracurricular activities, seemed like a selfless act, to him it was "just what you do."

A very humble and shy man, Horace was intensely private. He never wanted attention to be directed toward him. Those who knew Horace were well aware that attempting to get Horace to speak about himself was more difficult than pulling teeth. Despite his humility, there was actually much reason for accolades. Besides his "firsts" he was also a Golden Gloves boxer who, though a middleweight, had to fight light heavyweights for competition. He was a lifetime member of the NAACP and served as past president of the Hampton chapter. He believed in the work of racial justice and in 2017 joined the Hampton NAACP and others in protests to change the names of Hampton schools that carry the names of Confederate leaders. He believed in giving of himself both in and outside of the church walls. As a student Horace struggled with trigonometry and geometry. He felt it a blessing that he was ultimately able to master math and it prompted him to share his gift with others through tutoring. For 10 years he tutored math and reading daily at Spratley Middle School. He was so faithful, the principal said they viewed him as "almost a full-time faculty member."  In 1997 he began supervising at a neighborhood learning center operated by the Newtown Civic and Improvement League in alliance with Spratley. He continued to tutor there until he stopped driving at age 95. He was honored by the American Red Cross for faithfully donating many gallons of lifesaving blood. Additionally, he volunteered for a number of community projects, from the American Red Cross to Peninsula Legal Aid. Late in life God brought Horace an adult daughter in love. Carol served as the parish pastoral associate and knew both Horace and Lillian quite well. Carol would visit them both during Lillian's years with dementia. After the death of his beloved Lil, Horace admitted that he was struggling to find purpose and meaning through his grief. Carol helped him to see that God obviously still had much left for him to do, since he was still very much alive. Following that one conversation, Horace immediately picked up where he'd left off for his hiatus to care for Lillian. He helped organize the parish blood drives, became a founding member of the Council 16226 of the Knights of Columbus at Immaculate Conceptions, served a trustee for Council 16226, volunteered weekly with Sunday Supper, and volunteered annually to stay overnight with the guests of A Night's Welcome- the parish ministry to the homeless.

Horace did not allow his maturing years or physical frailty to stop him from sharing his gifts. He simply changed the ministry or the role that he played. At 92, when his macular degeneration made it unsafe for him to continue driving long distances, he moved next door to the parish and sold his home. His one desire was to stay close enough to the parish so that he could continue serving in whatever capacity possible and worshipping with his parish family. He joined the senior youth group and could be seen in the circle participating in dodgeball with the teens. He didn't say much but he was there with them every Sunday night until his diminishing eyesight caused him to trip and fall one evening on his way home. When he could no longer spend the several hours at Sunday Supper, he volunteered to pick up all the napkins and hand towels used for the meal and wash them. He arrived dutifully every Sunday evening pulling his "gerry-rigged" cart, to pick them up and return them cleaned and folded by mid week. He was a member of the parish Men's Spirituality group. He learned to navigate the use of a tablet, so that he could participate via Zoom while in-person gatherings were not allowed due to COVID. Horace was deeply concerned about the plight of the poor. He was an annual participant in the Menchville House annual Men Cooking for a Cause fundraiser until he became too weak to transport his famous jambalaya.

Over the years, Carol and Horace's friendship grew into a father-daughter relationship. Carol, a daddy's girl, had lost her biological father at age 24 and had no biological relatives in Virginia. Horace became a father to her in every way. He was her chief encourager and supporter, sounding board, source of wisdom, counsel and correction, shoulder to cry on, and hours of conversation (and yes, Carol did most of the talking!) It was to Horace that Carol's future husband first asked for her hand in marriage and blessing. Horace and Carol's mother Yolande, both struggling with mobility, walked Carol down the aisle on her wedding day. It was in Carol and Horace's many hours together that Horace shared precious nuggets of incredible insight as well as bits and pieces about his life. Horace's two sons Robert and David, embraced their new "little sister" and the three of them along with Susan and Tom, David and Carol's spouses, shared the responsibility of caring for Dad until the very end.

In an interview Horace reluctantly gave to the Daily Press at age 72, when asked about his countless volunteering activities, he stated: "Now that I've retired, I can't imagine how I found time to work all these years"... with what we have been given "we have an obligation not to keep on taking, but to give back what has been given us, or what we have earned.''

Preceded in death by his parents and wife, Lillian R. Bellamy; Horace is survived by his sons Robert H. Bellamy and David M. Bellamy (Susan M.), daughter in love, Carol Dufresne (Tom Skubic); granddaughter Clare Naglich; great-granddaughter, Alanna J. O'Hara; sister Iris O. Thompson; cousin, Kathy Foster; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 6 PM on Friday, June 25, 2021, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, officiated by Father John Grace.  The family will receive friends one hour prior to the Mass. Interment will be private. The Mass will be live streamed on the funeral home Facebook page or you may watch by CLICKING HERE.

Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer's Association, alz.org or to the Immaculate Conception Church Sunday Supper Ministry, 2150 Cunningham Drive, Hampton, VA 23666.

Arrangements by R. Hayden Smith Funeral Home, Hampton, VA. www.rhaydensmith.com.