09-12-2021 Hall of Fame - Flipbook - Page 52
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Baltimore Sun Media | Sunday, September 12, 2021
BALTIMORE SUN’S 2021
BUSINESS AND CIVIC HALL OF FAME HONOREE
DAVID
K. WILSON
M
organ State University President David K.
Wilson has no shortage of accomplishments
that he can rightfully be proud of at the institution he has led since 2010. There’s the procurement of the university’s largest-ever research
contract, a $28.5-million, five-year contract
from NASA. There’s the internationally known
and accredited School of Global Journalism
and Communication he created in 2013. There’s the transformation of the physical campus with the construction of state-of-the-art facilities, ranging from the
Tyler Hall Student Service Building to the Morgan Business Center.
But the accomplishment that he holds dearest is the $5 Scholarship Fund he
established in 2011. It’s personal for him.
The fund, which is dedicated to
helping Morgan students who are
having financial difficulties stay
in school, commemorates one of
the most important moments of
Dr. Wilson’s life: the day he left
the sharecropper’s shack in rural
Alabama, where he lived with his
father, mother and nine siblings
to become a student at Tuskegee
University. There he would graduate with a bachelor’s and master’s
degrees before continuing on to
Harvard University, where he
would earn a master’s and doctorate in education.
Dr. Wilson says he never
completed a full school year before
the seventh grade, because he had
to leave the classroom to help his
father, who could neither read nor
write, in the fields. And, yet, with the
encouragement of a caring teacher,
he had blossomed as a student and
gained entry to Tuskegee.
As he packed in the pre-dawn
darkness on the day of his departure, his father called him aside. He
told the young man he had been
saving for years for this day.
“He reached his hands in his
overalls and he pulled out something he called a piece of money and
he asked me to hold out my hand
and put this piece of money in my
BACKGROUND
Age: 67
Hometown: McKinley, Alabama
Current residence: Baltimore City
Education: B.S., political science;
M.S., educational administration,
Tuskegee University; M.Ed., Ed.D.,
Harvard University.
Career highlights: Tenth president
of Morgan State University; former
chancellor of University of Wisconsin College and the University of
Wisconsin–Extension; vice president
for university outreach and associate provost at Auburn University;
associate provost of Rutgers, the
State University of New Jersey
Civic and charitable activities:
Former chairman of the HBCU/China
Network, member of the Maryland
Cybersecurity Council and the Maryland Longitudinal Data System Governing Board; serves on the boards
of directors of: the Greater Baltimore
Committee, the Association of
Public and Land Grant Universities
and the Association of American
Colleges and Universities. Member
of President Barack Obama’s Board
of Advisors on Historically Black
Colleges and Universities; previously
served on the board of the United
Way of Central Maryland
Family: Divorced, one son
hand and put his hand over mine,”
Dr. Wilson says. “And I looked in his
face, and he was crying. I had never
seen my father cry. “
Dr. Wilson’s voice cracked as he
voiced his father’s words to him:
“‘Son, this is all that I have, but I
am investing this in you because I
believe in you. And more importantly, you believe in yourself. And
I may not be around to witness this,
but you will go far.’ ”
The 67-year-old educator remembered standing on the front porch of
what he calls his family’s “shanty
house” as the sun was coming up
and seeing in his hand the $5 bill
that his father had given him.
“The investment my father made
in me, I could not disappoint him,
because it was such a struggle for
him to save five dollars,” Dr. Wilson
says today.
“And so, when you come into
my office at Morgan, there’s a little
shelf,” he continued. “On this shelf
are the most important things in
my life. And there on the shelf is
a replica of the $5 bill my father
gave to me. I have a small sample
of a bale of cotton there to remind
that I had to put a sack across my
shoulder and pick it. I also have a
little picture of my father, mother
and late brother. And then, I have
a jar of black dirt which is taken
from our shanty house to remind
me of our connectedness to the soil.
So for me, the motivation has been
the faith and investment my father
made in me.”
Part of Dr. Wilson’s skill as a
leader, according to those who have
worked with him, is in the faith and
investments he has made in them.
“Dr. Wilson leads by example.
He’s a commander who can often
be found on the front lines of the
efforts to project Morgan to the
city, state and nation. But he gives
his field commanders — his vice
presidents and deans — the space
and support to do their jobs,” says
DeWayne Wickham, the recently
retired founding dean of the School
of Global Journalism & Communication. He was one of Dr. Wilson’s
first hires.
“Dr. Wilson is a journalism dean’s
dream come true. He understands
the power and relevance of media
to a university, and to the world into
which it sends its students,” Mr.
Wickham added. “And he knows
“Dr. Wilson is a
journalism dean’s
dream come true. He
understands the power
and relevance of media
to a university, and to
the world into which
it sends its students.
And he knows that
Morgan is uniquely
positioned to produce
journalists and strategic
communication
specialists who will
bring more diversity of
body and mind to this
nation’s media.”
— DeWayne Wickham, recently
retired founding dean of the
School of Global Journalism &
Communication
that Morgan is uniquely positioned
to produce journalists and strategic
communication specialists who will
bring more diversity of body and
mind to this nation’s media.”
Rep. Kweisi Mfume, chair of the
Morgan State’s Board of Regents,
says, “Very little happens in higher
education where Dr. Wilson is not
called upon to give his advice and
or his thoughts. It’s fair to say he is
a rare bird among college presidents
who still believes students are our
most important product.”
As a one-time student, teacher,
radio show host and now regent,
Mr. Mfume feels he takes a back
seat to no one in his love of Morgan
State. But President Wilson, he says,
is right there with him in sharing
that passion.
“He left Harvard and the University of Wisconsin, went out on a date
with an HBCU and fell in love,” Mr.
Mfume says. “Morgan is his life and
his life’s work. I can’t tell you how
much the university has grown and
excelled under his leadership. I
just can’t get him to take vacation. I
worry about him because he works
so hard for the school.”