THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607240111
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: 81 lines
Over the years, I've written stories for one reason or another about Vernon K. Turner and Jo Turner Silva. Some weeks ago I had a call from their mother, who told me she has another child who also is an achiever.
Then, one day recently, when he was in town, I talked to him. Yes, he is a special person who remembers well his early years in Portsmouth.
Raymond Edward Turner has been serving as an administrator at Roxbury Community College in Boston and is division chair of mathematics, science and technology. He has a doctorate in chemistry from Polytechnic University in Brooklyn.
``I was a young man when I left Portsmouth,'' said Turner, now 48.
But this Portsmouth native adamantly credits his good life to his family, to his church and to his schools in Portsmouth.
``I grew up at Third Baptist Church,'' he said. ``Church was the most important thing in my life.''
But school was a close second. He well remembers a day at Riddick-Weaver School when he was in the sixth grade.
``Mrs. Muckle gave us some good advice,'' he said. ``She said we should stand up straight and hold our heads high and look people in the eye. She said we were as good as the next person.''
Young people, he said, need to follow that advice and ``get rid of the big chips on their shoulders.''
Good training in schools and in churches as well as at home is very important, he said.
``My Norcom High background allowed me to compete with the best,'' he said.
In 1967, Ray left home at age 18 ``to seek my fortune.''
Like many other young black men in Portsmouth back then, he chose the route of joining the U.S. Army. After serving as a combat medic with the light infantry in Vietnam, Turner was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve and by 1982 he had reached the rank of major.
``I'm still active in the reserve,'' he said. ``I take my military background very seriously. It's rewarding and very important. I'm still patriotic.''
In fact, his experiences and success in the military probably have something to do with the fact that he still is at Roxbury Community College, which he called ``the only historically black institution in New England.''
``I believe in giving back,'' he said.
Roxbury, located in the heart of Boston, is 22 years old. Turner is proud of the fact that the school focuses on science and that 80 percent of the faculty members in his division have doctorates.
``It's something to brag about, and I boast about it all the time,'' he said. ``We're a teaching school.''
Roxbury, he said, has an interesting student body because of the influx of Africans and Caribs into the area. The school draws students from Chinatown and has quite a number of Russian immigrants attending English classes.
``We have good transfer programs,'' Turner said.
The campus has its own TV and radio stations, he said, and a multimillion dollar sports complex.
``It's a good school,'' he said.
He added that he feels it's important to him to be part of making it good.
The faculty is predominantly white, he said, and he believes minority students should have some contact with teachers from minority groups.
Turner received his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College of City University of New York before going for his doctorate at Polytechnic. He later did post-doctoral work at the Harvard School of Public Health. He received honors all along the way.
In our conversation, he constantly returned to the training he received in his early years.
``Having a strong faith and a strong family is so important,'' he said. ``That gives people a desire to better themselves.''
A lot of young people today probably think ideas expressed by Turner are pretty outdated. But, if you searched their secret hearts, a lot of them probably would envy the stability of his life.
Turner is a man who knows who he is and what he can do. He is doing a job he believes will contribute to the future of young people, especially young black people.
Although his life in comfortable, Turner probably never will be a rich man. Rather, he will count his wealth in intangibles - his family, his job, his students who go on to do well in the world.
We could could use a few more good men like him in this crazy world, where young people sometimes lose sight of faith and family values, and schools often avoid noticing the empty places in student lives. by CNB