THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996 TAG: 9601200020
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By FRANK CALLAHAM
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Forgive me. Bragging is unattractive, I know. But I once was Beth Polson's boss.
In March 1966, when I was sent to The Ledger-Star's Portsmouth office as city editor, Beth was the editorial assistant there. She was about 20, on her own, working full time and attending Old Dominion University. She had come to ``the big cities'' from Corapeake, N.C., which she describes as ``a town of 200 when everybody's home.''
Beth was full of energy, initiative and good humor and devoid of pretense. She also was indomitable in spirit and unmistakably - but disarmingly - self-assured.
After some months, as I remember, she was transferred to Norfolk to write for the newspaper's youth page. In 1973 she received her bachelor's degree from ODU, and a couple of years later moved on, going into television production.
She began with ``NBC News'' and ``NBC Magazine with David Brinkley.'' From 1983 to 1986 she produced ``The Barbara Walters Specials,'' winning one of her three Emmy's. She also co-wrote Not My Kid - A Parent's Guide to Kids and Drugs and Go Toward the Light, which she later made into television films.
Today she heads The Polson Co. in Pasadena. Executive producer of nine TV movies of the week, she says: ``I've always tried to choose projects that have some afterlife. I guess I am proudest of the fact that films like `Not My Kid' have been used a lot in teaching parents and kids about drug addiction. And `Go Toward the Light' has been used in children's hospices all over this country and others to teach families how to deal with death.''
But on Sunday, Dec. 17, 1995, as she stood capped and gowned before almost 2,000 of her alma mater's degree candidates and 4,000 or so others in the cavernous Norfolk Scope, something else was on her mind. Typically direct and candid, she told her audience she had asked friends and associates to name the speaker at their commencement - she admitted she had skipped her own - and none could. So, she said, she had set out to be memorable, ``to say one thing that somebody remembers.''
Then she offered five rules for success:
``You can't know where you are going if you don't know where you've been. Find something that's important to you and do the very best you can. . . .
``The only difference between success and failure is effort. . . .
``If you think you can, you're right. If you think you can't, you're right.
``Life is what happens to you when you have other plans. . . .
``The F words: Faith, Family, Friends. Nothing you do and no career you choose will be as important as your decisions in these three areas. . . .''
We never know, she said, what opportunities will be offered us to make a difference in someone's life. She told of a young man who spotted a black woman standing by her disabled car as motorist after motorist sped by. He stopped. The woman, not concerned about the car, asked only for a ride home. A week or so later he received a package containing a TV set - and a thank-you note saying that because of him she had reached her husband's bedside before he died. It was signed ``Mrs. Nat King Cole.''
Ms. Polson closed by wishing for each graduate that ``you reach your full potential as a human being.''
Adlai Stevenson once told a commencement audience: ``My job is to speak. Your job is to listen. I hope we finish our jobs at the same time.'' At Scope that Sunday afternoon, speaker and listeners did.
And by happy coincidence, Ms. Polson's theme was reinforced that evening as her latest television movie, ``The Christmas Box'' (based on the Richard Paul Evans best-seller), premiered on CBS. It's a well-told story of an ailing widow in her 70s (Maureen O'Hara) who repeatedly challenges a young father (Richard Thomas) with the question: ``What was the first Christmas gift?''
The man jokingly replied: ``A tie?'' In time, she drew the desired response, ``A child.'' Having lost a 5-year-old daughter many years before, she made the man realize that family comes before business, that he shouldn't miss opportunities to spend time with his own small daughter.
Beth Polson produces what she preaches. MEMO: Mr. Callaham lives in Norfolk. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MS. POLSON
by CNB