Cornelius Stripling Papers

Cornelius Silas Stripling was born on 17 August 1923. His father, Cornelius S., was a Methodist minister. His mother, Evelyn, taught home economics in the rural schools of Georgia. Stripling attended Savannah State College and graduated in 1945 with a B.S. in Natural Science. Subsequently, he matriculated at the Harvard University School of Dentistry, where he supported himself by waiting on tables. After graduating from Dental School in 1949, Stripling entered the United States Air Force and began practicing dentistry at Frances Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Eighteen months later, he was promoted to Captain and placed in charge of the dental clinic and its thirty personnel, some of whom found it difficult to take orders from a black officer. (The Air Force had been integrated only since 1948.) Next, his orders took him to Korea, where he was given the responsibility of caring for the dental needs of over 3,000 Air Force personnel. After 13 months in Korea, Stripling received the rank of Major, and was relocated to Bangor, Maine, at Dow Air Force Base. In Maine, the Secretary of the Air Force awarded him the Commendation Ribbon, in 1953. After terminating his service with the United States Air Force, in 1953, he married Beverly Warren, of Welch, West Virginia. The couple produced two children: Anne- Marie, a Senior Director of Video Productions for Sony Music, in New York; and Anthony, a Senior Account Executive for Charles Schwab Investments, in Philadelphia. The family relocated to Denver and, for over 45 years, Stripling privately practiced dentistry. Upon retiring, in 1990, he became passionate about still-life photography. Stripling is a well-known and much-lauded fixture in Denver’s photographic community. -- Anne-Marie Stripling