THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606080380
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
LENGTH: 66 lines
Harrison Wilson III remembers.
His mother in the kitchen late at night, cooking dinner.
``Whenever she was going to be gone to a meeting, she cooked the night before,'' he said. ``And that was before fast food and microwaves.''
April Wilson remembers.
``I never felt that I missed out on anything. I entertained myself dressing up in my mother's clothes when she was out to a meeting. Or she would take me with her. And I would see the effect that she had on people.''
On Tuesday, Harrison and April are coming home along with other siblings to be with their parents, Norfolk State University President Dr. Harrison Wilson and Dr. Lucy Wilson, as they accept the B'nai B'rith Foundation's Great American Traditions Award.
The honor marks the first time in B'nai B'rith's 125-year history that the award goes jointly to a couple.
For 21 years, Harrison Wilson has led Norfolk State from an unknown college to a doctoral-granting university with a host of distinguished alumni.
Lucy Wilson, a retired Old Dominion University associate vice president, was the first black woman to chair the Norfolk School Board. She served on the boards of Operation Smile, the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army. . . . I could go on for days about both.
They are a Norfolk First Family, having lived for the life of the community.
But what about the children of such leaders? Do they get buried in the blizzard of all that ``commitment''?
Not at the Wilsons'.
``They put God first, family second, their jobs third, and they put the community fourth,'' says Wilson III, 41, the second-oldest of their six children. ``It shows you how much they must've put into the other things.''
The front yard was always the center of family activity. Wilson III and his three brothers were up early, cutting grass with Dad. When they lived in Jackson, Miss., they rode ponies.
``I know that must sound hokey,'' says Wilson III, an attorney who heads the African American Sports Hall of Fame in Richmond. ``But we really were like `The Cosbys.' ''
But there were times when commitment to community bore down hard on the household.
April watched her mother remain composed at the center of a school-board politics, busing and media frenzy.
``She gave me the name `steel butterfly' because I was injured, had the flu, but I danced and competed in a beauty pageant anyway. And I won.
``But she is the true steel butterfly. She's strength. But she's grace and beauty.''
And there are still times when the children worry about their parents' commitments.
``It can be intense,'' says April, a Seattle television reporter. ``My Dad is constantly pushing.''
This year when the state legislature threatened to cut millions from Norfolk State, Dr. Harrison Wilson went to Richmond almost every other day, up at 7 a.m., back home at 10 p.m.
``I said, `Dad, slow down. Enjoy life.' He said, `This university is my life.' ''
Over the years, Harrison and Lucy Wilson, coming and going to all those meetings, transmitted a sense of mission to their children.
``They've shown me that you don't just take, take, take,'' says April. ``You must give back.''
They've shown all of us. by CNB