Dr. Daniels’ many professional awards include: two Aviation Research and Development Commander’s Awards, Secretary of the Army Award for Outstanding Achievement in Equal Employment Opportunity, Department of the Army Exceptional Civilian Service Award and The Meritorious Civilian Service Award. He has also received a Distinguished Service Award by his fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi.

     Dr. Daniels has been a member of the Institute of Navigation, the Army Aviation Association of America, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Defense Preparedness Association and the Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association. He has published numerous articles and papers on air traffic control, navigation, electronic warfare systems and radar systems.

     Below are a number of the organizations which he either founded or was an active member:

 Inter Community Coordinating Council, a Headstart Agency, with 13 centers in Monmouth County. He was a past chairman of the board of directors.

 The Monmouth County Human Relations Commission, he was a chairman. He regularly spoke to community groups on the commission’s role and function in reducing hate/bias incidents.

 The St. Stephens Urban Development Corporation, a 90 unit garden apartment housing development built 44 years ago. He was Vice President of the Board of Directors.

 Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  He was Vice Chairman of the Board.

 He was the chairman of the Board and Co-Administrator of a 20 week, 3 hours per week, computer science program (PAC) for minority students at Monmouth University. It started in 1983.

 He was historian and Monmouth County representative of a national technical organization, Science, Mathematics, Aeronautics, Research , and Technology (S.M.A.R.T.), an organization that encouraged minority youth to enter science and technology careers.

 He was active in the St. Stephen A.M.E. Zion Church, a former Trustee President, and chaired the church building Specifications Committee.

 He was a charter member of the alumni chapter of the Asbury Park-Neptune Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, and former president, and Chairman of Scholarship and Youth Programs.

 Mr. Daniels was the Chairman of the Labor & Industry Committee of the Asbury Park-Neptune NAACP, a life member of over 30 years and past vice president;

 Was a member of the Monmouth University Business Council; and, a member of the African American Studies Advisory Committee; a member of the Ocean Township School District Affirmative Action/Multicultural Committee; a member of the Hispanic Affairs Resource Center Board of Directors, a county wide Hispanic umbrella social agency.

 In October, 2011, he was inducted into the Wall of Honor by Info Age, a Museum at Camp Evans. 

     Dr. Daniels retired from the Department of the Army as a Space Technology Executive after thirty-eight years of exceptional, meritorious service. Thirty- five years of this time was spent at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey and at Camp Evans. Dr. Daniels was the Deputy Director as well as the Director of the Combat Surveillance and Target Acquisition Laboratory.

     He was the second African American Director of a major Army research and development laboratory. He is a recognized technical and management specialist with expertise in systems development, systems integration, digital computers, electronic warfare systems, navigation systems, satellite systems, ground surveillance radars, nuclear radiation detection, identification friend - or - foe equipment and meteorological data systems.

     In 1966, Dr. Daniels was inducted into the University of Iowa’s College of Engineering, Distinguished Engineering Alumni Academy. In addition, he holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Monmouth University.  In 2001 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Monmouth University.

     After graduation from the University of Iowa, he went to Texas to get married to Maxine Harris in August 1948. He was offered a job as an engineering instructor at Prairie View A&M. He taught math and engineering for 2 years and designed and installed the electrical engineering laboratory.

     In August 1950, he moved with his family to New Jersey and then to New York in search of a job as an electrical engineer as there were no jobs for Blacks in engineering except at the University. He got a job at Fort Monmouth in the Specification and Drafting branch at Camp Evans in Wall Township.

     For the next 35 years he progressed through the ranks from a bench engineer to the Director of a major research and development laboratory. He worked 9 to 10 hour days and went to school because he found out that he could use education to advance his knowledge of engineering since he could not depend upon only one promotion to get experience.

     In 1976 he was selected to attend the Industrial College of the Air Forces (ICAF) for one year. This training was graduate level for those whose potential as for “flag” and general officers or senior executive service for civilians. He completed this program successfully.

     This investment in time on the job and going to school propelled him from a bench engineer to a team leader, branch chief and project manager to laboratory director. He was selected to go to the Pentagon as assistant executive of space.

     During those years he received many citations for excellence in engineering and management. In fact, he received 10 straight, annual Outstanding Performance Ratings and 3 Commander’s Awards.

    

     In the 1940’s Dr. Daniels was selected to participate in the Army Specialized Training Reserve Program as a part of the Enlisted Reserve, for a total of 18 months. While participating, he attended Prairie View A & M College; University of Iowa; Kansas University and Syracuse University.

     Next he enrolled in basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama and eventually was assigned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky.  After completion of basic training, he went back into the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of Maine in Prano, Maine for the next 6 months. To show the level and intensity of the program, he received 3 years credit for engineering when he got out of the service and went back to the University of Iowa to get his engineering degree in 1948. He spent one year at Louisville Municipal College of the University of Louisville from 1946 to 1947 and then back to the University of Iowa under the G.I. bill. If you were Black you could not get an engineering degree in Kentucky. Few G.I.’s knew about the ASTP.

     Dr. Daniels served 33 months in World War II. During the war the U.S. Army ran the single biggest college education program in the nation’s history.  During its short existence, counting its reserve component (ASTRP), the program sent more than 200, 000 soldiers to some 227 colleges to take highly sped-up courses in various branches of engineering, medicine, dentistry, personnel psychology and 34 different foreign languages. Massive arrivals of young ASTPers almost changed many campuses into Army reservations.

     Dr. Thomas Edward Daniels, Jr. was born to Thomas Edward Daniels, Sr. and Jennie Floyd (Parks) Daniels on November 12, 1926 in a box car in Ravenna, Kentucky.

     At the age of 3, his family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where they lived in a number of sections within the city over a period of years. His attending school was determined by where in the city he lived at those times.

   Dr. Daniels attended Phyllis Wheatley Elementary School until he was 12 years of age; Madison Junior High where he graduated 5th in his class; and Central Colored High School where he graduated 2nd in his class, in Jan 1944.  While in high school he was on the school paper staff, worked in the library, was active in the Sunday school and the boy scouts, and was 7th string on the football team.

     While in the 11th grade, his father passed, impacting his life greatly. Also in high school, he took tests to qualify for the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). Enlisting in the Army’s Specialized Training Reserve Program (ASTRP) he was sent to Prairie View A & M College for initial training in engineering.

The strength of 1000, and yet there is one
My grandfather
Knew duty from a young age
And where others would run
He stood high and EXCELLED
He set standards SO high
Only others could admire from afar
The view so beautifully, painful
Paved with the blood, sweat, and tears of relentless fights for something better
He fought when the hope was hopeless
Fear was fearful
Fright was frightful
He fought when he could have given in
He fought so that his children’s children would not have to
He knew The Dream, because he saw The Dream
And that dream powered him to go on
He understood the value of education, awareness, truth, and justice
He understood the value of family, friends, neighbors, and the community
He knew that if he didn’t
We wouldn’t
So he did
And he instilled all of those same values within us
He was a man of action and courage
Of leadership and strength
Of love and guidance
And for all of that I am grateful
For all of that I am BLESSED
For I know that without him, I would not be me
I now stand tall, lead by the strength of him
I now battle, lead by the fight of him
I stand in confidence, lead by the fearlessness of him
Because of him
I will continue to press forward for justice and truth
I will continue to press forward for education and awareness
I will continue to press forward for family and friends
I will continue to press forward for neighbors and community
I will continue to press forward, lead by the light of him
Standing because he stood tall