Col. Clarence M. "Mel" Hurtt, a career Army officer, military historian and college teacher whose athletic accomplishments placed him in the Hall of Fame of both Morgan State University and Dunbar High School, died of cancer Saturday at Sinai Hospital. He was 73.
Born in Sparrows Point, one of 10 children of the Rev. Taylor Jesse Hurtt, he attended Dunbar, where his ability in football and track won him an athletic scholarship at what was then Morgan State College. While there, he was drafted into the Army and took part in four European campaigns of World War II.
After the war, he returned to Morgan, where he earned a master's degree in history. In 1949, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. His varied military career of the next 28 years included service in the office of the Army chief of staff at the Pentagon; as commander of the Augsburg Military Community in Augsburg, Germany; as deputy commander of Aberdeen Proving Ground; and as chairman of the department of military science at Morgan State.
He served two tours of duty in Germany and two in Vietnam.
His U.S. military decorations included a Bronze Star, Legion of Merit and Army Commendation Medal. The Republic of South Vietnam awarded him the Distinguished Service Order and the Cross of Gallantry, and he received the Honor Medal from the Federal Republic of West Germany.
He retired from the Army with the rank of colonel in 1977.
His published works included "Land Mine Warfare," a book he wrote in 1957 that was translated into Vietnamese and used in the training of South Vietnamese soldiers. He was also the author of "The Role of the Black Infantry in the Expansion of the West," published in 1979 by West Virginia History, a quarterly magazine.
In retirement, he maintained an interest in the work of the Boy Scouts. He was a member of the Pi Omega Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity and Phi Alpha Theta, an international honorary historical society.
He was also a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church in Ashburton, where a Mass of Christian burial was offered yesterday. He was to be buried with honors at 9 a.m. today at Arlington National Cemetery.
He is survived by his wife of 45 years, the former Virginia Newton of Baltimore; a daughter, Patricia E. McMorris, of Baltimore; two grandsons; two granddaughters; and a great-grandson.