09-12-2021 Hall of Fame - Flipbook - Page 30
30 Baltimore Sun Media | Sunday, September 12, 2021
BALTIMORE SUN’S 2021
BUSINESS AND CIVIC HALL OF FAME HONOREE
ALVIN C.
HATHAWAY SR.
W
hen AlvinC.HathawaySr.sayshe“grewup
in the womb” of Union Baptist Church in
West Baltimore, he is not speaking metaphorically.
Rev. Dr. Hathaway’s family lived at 1211
Druid Hill Ave. as he was growing up, and
the historic church stands at 1219 Druid
Hill.
Even as a teenager, Rev. Dr. Hathaway says, he was involved in the spiritual,
political and social justice lives of its ministries, particularly that of the Rev.
Vernon Dobson, who served as senior pastor from 1967 until Rev. Dr. Hathaway
took over in 2007 after serving three years as assistant pastor.
“I was involved with Reverend Dobson in every stage of his political career of
activism from political involvement and civil rights involvement to organizing
BUILD, Baltimore United in Leadership Development,” he says.
“I was involved in all of it. And so,
I understood the responsibility of
the church and then I understood
the sense of history.”
“But I also had a sense of the
continuum of United Baptist
Church,” he added. “Many people
don’t realize my doctoral degree was
literally in studying Union Baptist
Church.”
Rev. Dr. Hathaway earned a
Doctor of Ministry degree from the
United Theological Seminary with a
dissertation titled “Servant Church:
Preaching and Teaching Servant
Theology to African American leaders in Union Baptist of Baltimore.”
While his studies have taken
him from Ohio to England, and his
community organizing efforts have
taken him deep into neighborhood
and civic life in Richmond, Virginia,
and Washington, D.C., the remarkable thing about his career as a faith
leader is the almost all of it has taken
place in the West Baltimore neighborhood in which he was born.
“I can only say it was divine. I
studied at Harvard. I studied at
Oxford. I trained at the United
Theological Seminary in Dayton,
Ohio, and St. Mary’s Seminary here.
BACKGROUND
Age: 70
Hometown: Baltimore City
Current residence: Baltimore City
Education: Baltimore City College
High School; B.A., McKendree University School of Religion; M.A., Saint
Mary’s Seminary and University;
Doctor of Ministry, United Theological Seminary
Career highlights: Retired this summer as senior pastor at Union Baptist
Church; founder African Ancestry
Neuroscience Research Initiative
Civic and charitable activities: On
the boards for: University of Maryland Medical Center, Family League,
The Ecumenical Institute, The
Greater Baltimore Committee and
Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.
Co-chairs Promise Heights, a partnership with University of Maryland
School of Social Work to improve
outcomes in five Upton Community
Schools. Inducted into the Martin
Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers
at Morehouse College; received the
Judge Alexander Williams Award for
Educational Excellence. Founder of
ACT Now Baltimore network
Family: Wife, Kathleen; two children
I’ve been blessed with a rich education,” he says. “But the bulk of my
ministry has been literally in a foursquare-block area from where I was
born. That’s phenomenal. Now that
I reflect on that, I think, ‘How could
you design something like that?’ ”
Rev. Dr. Hathaway says he has
tried to be part of he calls a “walkaround gospel” in that neighborhood.
“So, what happens is that inside
the neighborhood of Pennsylvania
Avenue and Upton and McCullough
Homes, those are people who I’ve
fed, provided assistance to with gas
and electric bills. I’ve trained their
children,” he says.
“So, I walk around and I have
everybody like waiving at me and
yelling at me and I’m yelling at them
and waiving at them. You know,
maybe a family member had experienced some difficulty and they came
to me and I’m the one saying the last
words over that. It’s been a fruitful
ministry for me because it’s been in
the neighborhood of my birth.”
Sandy Hillman, founder of Sandy
Hillman Communications and a
former aide to President Lyndon
Johnson and Mayor William
Donald Schaefer, says whether it
is economic development or spiritual care, Rev. Dr. Hathaway’s core
goal has always been service to his
community.
“I have known and admired Al
Hathaway for decades,” Ms. Hillman says. “Over the years, I have
watched him deftly use his idealism fueled by pragmatism to affect
tangible change and engage a broad
swath of allies as advocates and
supporters of whatever it is he is
championing. And he has never lost
sight of his focus on his congregants,
his neighborhood and his city. Every
program he has started, every cause
he has promoted, every ask he has
made ties back to creating opportunities for the people to whom he is
committed.”
And while he stepped down this
summer as senior pastor at Union
Baptist, he is as engaged as ever in
the community at age 70.
“I find I’m more busy than ever
when I’m supposed to be retired,” he
says sounding pleased that his leadership is still in such demand.
“These vacant buildings in West
Baltimore are really part of my
story,” he says. “So, when I go to P.S.
“He has never lost
sight of his focus on
his congregants, his
neighborhood and his
city. Every program
he has started, every
cause he has promoted,
every ask he has made
ties back to creating
opportunities for the
people to whom he is
committed.”
— Sandy Hillman, founder of Sandy
Hillman Communications
103, which is the school that Justice
Thurgood Marshall attended, well,
that was an active community
center when I was young. Many of
the people I know went there for
school. So, for me it’s kind of tragic
to see this school vacant for the past
20 years.”
“So my community development side says, ‘Let’s organize the
finances and all of the team necessary to put this building back in
service to a productive use.”
The building is now on track to
undergo an $8.2 million renovation with the Beloved Community
Services Corp. a nonprofit Rev. Dr.
Hathaway founded, leading the
renovation.
“Al is kind of what we would call
maybe a throwback of the Black
preacher, who was shepherd to the
flock,businesspersoninthecommunity and a voice, a civic leader in
terms of speaking to the issues that
were affecting everybody not just
the congregation … In his mind,
there isn’t any issue that affects the
experiences of people that ought
be off limits to the participation of
clergy,” says the Rev. S. Todd Yeary,
senior pastor of Douglas Memorial
Community Church.
“If I were to sum Al up in two
words, he’s visionary, but he is also
a collaborator,” Rev. Yeary adds.
“He not only sees big ideas, but he
figures out ways to invite people in
to be partners in the realization of
those big ideas.”