Archibald “Archie” Warren Madison was born 13 November 1920 in Ames, Iowa, to parents Walter Garfield Madison (ISC class of 1914), the first licensed Black plumber in the state, and his wife, Gussie Irene Askew Madison. Archie graduated from Ames high School in 1938 and enrolled in Iowa State College. During his time at ISC, Archie lived at home with his family at 1204 Third Street. His parents housed many Black ISC students there until they moved to live year around in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1942. (Walter Madison had already taken a job there as Chief Engineer at Fisk University in 1938.) Archie left Iowa State after two years in the engineering program to move to Nashville, where, according to his 1944 Army enlistment record, his civil employment fell into the category of “plumbers, gas fitters, and steamfitters.” He had joined his father’s business as an employee of Madison Plumbing and Heating before the company gained its government contract at Tuskegee Institute, which is likely where he met his future wife, Daile Sheppard Moore. The couple married in June 1942.
In 1944, Archie enlisted in the Army as a Private, serving in the Pacific Theater during World War Two. After his discharge, he re-enlisted in 1947 and served as a Lieutenant in an Army engineering dump truck company in Occupied Korea. He died there 5 October 1948 and was survived by his widow and three children: Beth Irene, Gail Paulette, and Archie Warren Madison, Jr. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Nashville.
