Dan Willis, Dorchester
From seminary student to college drop-out to an EdD at the age of 29, Dan Willis was on a mission in his early years to find where he fit in. Decades later, with an established career as an organizational development consultant, he's still looking.
Below, in his own words, is how the search began, as the son of a military officer living in France.
“At that time, the Army had just been integrated, but most of the people that stayed in the Army post- WW II/Korea were Southern whites. So my father had a lot of Southern whites under him. It was not cool. So we lived off the base.
I remember coming home: ‘Mama, what’s a nigger?’ My mother said: ‘Where’d you hear that?’ I said, ‘That’s what they call us on the bus.’ She said, ‘Well, first of all, you’re not. That’s an ignorant person. And what you need to do, you just ignore them.’
So the next day on the bus, the first time we hear ‘nigger,’ my brother and I were fighting, fighting, fighting.
In essence, I’m middle class black. I went to Catholic schools, and I was not elite, but I was considered elite. I was basically designed to go to Howard or Hampton University. But I just found that suffocating.
I don’t really fit anywhere. Interracial marriage, etc. I don’t really fit in any tribe. How many people do you know that spent six years in the Irish Catholic seminary? How many people do you know that took Latin and Greek and French? It’s like floating alone and not fitting.
I don’t act the way I should act. I act the way I am.
I was once at Cornell University, I was on a project there, and I was the guest lecturer. So I show up and I’m sitting in the room- I’m always early, you know, my father was in the Army- and these people are coming in from all over the country. And it’s like 9:10, 9:15, and everybody was like, ‘When is this guy going to show up?’
And I’m the only black in the room. And then somebody said to me, “Are you…?”
And I said, “Mmhmm.”
I’m a hybrid. I don’t wish it on anyone. It’s lonely. But I don’t know how to be anything else. I feel like that’s my calling.”
This interview is part a partnership between Everyday Boston and the office of Boston City Council President Andrea Campbell that brings together District 4 seniors with their formerly incarcerated neighbors to collect the seniors' stories.
Dan was interviewed by Stacey Borden, who is now founder/director of New Beginnings Reentry Services Inc. "Meeting Dan and learning how he persevered and challenged himself was such an inspiring experience," Stacey said. "It makes me want to strive for better."
