William Lupton

Computer scientist William Lupton was born on May 26, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Central High School, graduating in 1959. That same year, Lupton joined the United States Navy and became a sailor, eventually becoming a U.S. Naval Flight Officer and attained the rank of Commander. He logged over 5,000 flight hours in his career and earned five Strike/Flight air medals for his combat cruises to Vietnam. In 1972, Lupton attended the Naval Postgraduate School in California where he received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in computer science. In 1980, Lupton served as chairperson of the computer science department at the United States Naval Academy. While there, he designed one of the most innovative and complete computer science majors in the country.

In 1981, Lupton took a position as a Professor of Naval Science at Louisiana State University and while there, he earned his Ph.D. degree in expert database systems. Following his tenure at LSU in 1987, he joined the faculty at Jackson State University and chaired the computer science department from 1987 to 1991. In 1991, Morgan State University invited Lupton to chair its computer science department, where he presently serves. Since 2007, Lupton was the principal investigator of Morgan State University’s Network Resources and Training Site in the Minority University-Space Interdisciplinary Network project which aims to inspire young minority scientists and engineers.

Lupton was the president of the Baltimore and National chapters of the National Technical Association and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was also the inaugural national president of the Association of the Departments of Computer Science and Engineering at Minority Institutions (ADMI). He generated over $5 million in funding to improve science and science education.

Lupton was married to Monica McKinney and had three sons, Michael, Steven, and Scott Lupton.

Lupton passed away on May 7, 2025.

William Lupton was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 13, 2010.