This morning I was reading an article in AARP Magazine about successful individuals who inspire others through their work, daily lives and participation in services organizations. Among the likes of Clint Eastwood, Scott Hamilton, Raquel Welch, and Leeza Gibbons, featured profiles also included Lonnie Ali, Dr. Aida Giachello, Captain Richard Phillips, Lilly Ledbetter, Brenda Krause Eheart and radio personality Tom Joyner. Tom is listed last here, but he is by no means the least.
Tom Joyner is a 60-year-old Dallas-based radio broadcaster, once known throughout the industry as “the hardest-working man in radio.” This title is because at one time he was doing daily radio shows from both Dallas and Chicago, flying between the two cities each day. Tom was born in Tuskegee, Alabama and is a graduate of Tuskegee University. He is also a strong advocate for historically black colleges. The Tuskegee connection — and the memories stirred reading about it — is the Tom Joyner connection to this posting.
At age 16 I began an off-and-on avocation in broadcast radio at station KBNO-FM, “high atop the Gulf Building in downtown Houston.” Station manager Richard Kenyon took a liking to a kid who happened to be visiting that top floor one Saturday morning, and helped the staff of six move in equipment and set up the station. After helping obtain the required FCC license, he hire me to work weekends. FM radio was a new concept and most programming consisted of “elevator music”, with 1-1/2 minutes of prerecorded commercials — or “spots” — and station identification every 13-1/2 minutes. The broadcast studio was operated by one person during each work shift. There was no microphone, only taped music and commercial cartridges. The broadcast operator’s on-air domain was a Gates studio console and buttons to be pushed as the format required.
Although I did off-air work for a couple of stations while in college, it was 1974 that I returned to “real radio” at KULF-AM, also in Houston, and actually became an on-air talk show host and began to make friends with other broadcasters. One of those friends was Sam Putney, a young black newsman. Sam and I would do some public affairs programs together and hired out as a dee-jay team for Christmas and New Year parties. We spent a lot of time talking and listening to each other.
Once we discussed personal heroes, and how black athletes, at the time, were the only public heroes available to black children. During one discussion, Sam was taken aback by my statement, “Black children need black heroes, but white children need black heroes, too.” I went on to explain that I had four personal heroes whose work and life stories had a profound effect in shaping the direction of my life. Two were Thomas Edison and Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain). The other two were black men: Booker T. Washington and George W. Carver.
Booker T. Washington was the founder of Tuskegee Institute, now Tuskegee University. George W. Carver was it’s most famous professor and a renowned scientist who counted Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone among his friends and frequent visitors at Tuskegee. Tuskegee was derived from Dr. Washington’s philosophy, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Dr. Carver tremendous success as a researcher and agricultural chemist was derived from his attempts to find the answer to the question “God, why am I here.”
In setting up his laboratory, George W. Carver had to be resourceful because of the lack of funding and used his ingenuity to turn ordinary items found at dumps and scrap heaps into instruments for scientific research. One account describes how, needing a mortar and pestle for his laboratory, he fabricated one from a broken teacup and wooden rod. In 1970, when I opened my company, Aquatech Laboratories, I found myself with the same need. Remembering the story of the broken teacup, I followed Dr. Carver’s example and fabricated one in the same way. It served me for many years, even though we had purchased one a few weeks later from a commercial laboratory supply.
During the first of my several visits to Tuskegee beginning in 1990, I visited the George W. Carver museum located on the campus. As I reviewed the great man’s life work, the lessons learned from his biography — read also at the age of 16 — that had become part of my inspiration, became apparent. Much of his personal equipment and artifacts were on display at the museum.
A docent noticed that I appeared to be looking for something in particular, and asked if she could help. I explained that I was looking for the teacup mortar and pestle, but could not find it. She explained that it had been broken years earlier, but then took me to a photograph of Dr. Carver in his laboratory. She pointed to an object on the workbench in the photograph and asked, “Will that do for now?”
It was the teacup that so profoundly influenced my career choice and my life.
Before I leave at the end of each trip, I visit the graves of Dr. Washington and Dr. Carver — both are located on the campus out of respect, and offer up a prayer of thanks to God for these two black heroes who helped shape the life of this white child.
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For additional information, check out and read the biographies of Booker T. Washington and George W. Carver from your public library, or go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver
http://www.incwell.com/Biographies/Carver,GeorgeWashington.html
