At the most recent Oscars, a major winner rushed up on stage and, out of breath, and said something like, “Nobody helped me – I did it all myself!” Then she immediately made clear that she was joking and proceeded to thank those who had indeed helped her in her achievements
And that is the point. In just about every example of individual success, the achievements would not have been possible without the help of others, and perhaps a bit of luck to go along with the hard work.
I’ll give you a couple of examples – one about a good high school friend who, with the help of one individual, was able to prepare himself for one of the most challenging academic and professional college programs after graduating from a tiny, under-manned and grossly under-equipped high school in the deep South in the late 1940s .
Lee Donne Olvey (He was always “Lee Donne” at school) was a year behind me in our little high school in Liberty County, Georgia. Bradwell Institute, the one public high school for white students in the County, had once been a private school, And, to put it mildly, it was a rather modest little school in a modest little county which had to maintain two different school systems in those “Separate but Equal” days .
Lee Donne and I were on the Bradwell basketball team together. He was much shorter and a much better shooter, while I was taller but a much better rebounder. We usually subbed for each other, back and forth, depending upon how the game was going.
Although I grew to love the school, it had no sports “program” as such – with only basketball for girls and boys, no gym (we practiced outdoors, played home games in the huge Camp Stewart (Closed) field house), no stadium, no cafeteria, no auditorium, no library, and no science labs.. But, like most schools, it had some great and concerned teachers.
Without most of what we consider essentials today, Lee Donne and I, and many others, had to somehow carve out a better high school education than was provided on the surface. We did this by taking advantage of what the school offered and by seeking extra help from a few amazing teachers. He and I discussed our good fortune many years later.
Lee Donne was a math whiz, and he also loved the sciences, but only one basic introduction to science class was offered. With no laboratory and no trained science teachers, there was no Science Department or program for us.
But we had Mr. W. H. Cohen, a part time math teacher whose principal occupation was as the owner of the local dry-cleaners! Recognizing our interest and need for additional instruction, he manufactured a rigorous science program for Lee Donne and an extra year of Math (Geometry) for both of us.
For my entire senior year (and Lee Donne’s Junior year), Mr. Cohen met with us for an extra period each school day. I don’t know what it meant for him – in time lost to his business.
Lee Donne thrived on the extra work, and I plodded along with my extra year of Geometry. Everybody, including the other teachers recognized that the additional help to Donne was a Godsend.
I was not around for his senior year, but I know from our earlier times with him and from my knowledge of his later successes that Lee Donne worked extremely hard that year and that he had extra help from Mr. Cohen and other teachers.
And, both of us were lucky to have had a year with the best high school English Teacher on the planet – Mrs. Faye Darsey. I have written about her a lot, – about how I received a gradate education in English Grammar from my one year with her.
Lee Donne Olvey graduated in 1950, one year after I, and was accepted to West Point. There he went on to be the top graduate in 1955, and I was not surprised to see on my TV, Cadet Captain Lee Donne Olvey standing beside the President out in front of the Corps of Cadets for the graduation ceremonies at the United States Military Academy.
As he stood on the parade ground beside the President that summer of ’55, I heard the commentators discussing his achievements – that he was both the ACADEMIC Leader – tying General MacAuthur’s record – and the LEADERSHIP leader that year..
He went on to his Rhodes Scholar studies, a PhD at Harvard, extensive studies in various South America countries and then back to the Academy for a career as Professor, and later as Distinguished Head of the Social Sciences Department.
He was published widely while on duty and after he retired as a Brigadier General. Today, deserving graduates of the Academy are eligible for the various Brigadier General Lee Donne Olvey Awards.
A few years later, back home, the Hinesville, Georgia, City Fathers named the first -ever, brand new football stadium for him.
I need just a short paragraph for my part in this little exercise – enough to say that, with the much-needed additional help of Mr. Cohen, I became a tiny bit more proficient in Math and the Sciences. In 1957, I was able to successfully complete and pass a battery of tests for the United States Armed Forces Institute in the four areas of English, Math, Science and Social Sciences.
A year later, I was nominated by my Commanders for a Direct Commission in the United States Army Reserves and went before a board of Colonels who mentioned those tests in our conversations. A week later, I received the Commission as a Reserve Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
The down side of that little appointment – although it I was able to turn it into a positive – is that in 1963, while out of the Army and attending school, I was called to Active Duty for military schools, two tours in Vietnam and a long stint as an Instructor. I decided to stay in and to complete 22 years and retirement.
So, my advice on the subject is to urge you, when you are feeling a little smug about an achievement and are certain that you did it all by yourself – hit that dozen home runs, improved your test scores by a dozen points, passed the drivers’ exam – to just pause, get a grip on yourself and be honest.
If you still want to take all the credit, be my guest. Lots of other folks do it.
But I say thank you Mister Cohen, thank you Mrs. Darsey, thank you Colonel John H.. K. Hyun, thank you Command Sergeant Major Glasgow, thank you Aunt Ella, and thank you to hundreds of others.
LEE DONNE OLVEY
From out of the woods
near Riceboro,
I came
to beat Lee Donne Olvey
in English Lit.
Yet he survived
and was called to West Point
on the Hudson
to salute the President
in ’55,
then off to Oxford
and scholarship.
In Hinesville now,
It’s the LEE DONNE OLVEY
Football Stadium,
But
the High School records say:
It’s me and English Literature –
A PLUS!
– Charles Brady
(The Riceboro Poems, A Biography of Place, 1989)
