Sherman Harris’s Legacy

Roy Harris, country gentleman, deacon, mentor, and storyteller.

The legacy that he passed on to his descendants was: a thirst for knowledge, and a love of education.

by Roy Harris

Surely my father had his faults, just as I have mine. He was a kind and gentle person, a hard worker, and hard to anger. He worked most of his life as a day laborer, and never ventured far from home. He loved to hunt and sit around the Texas Sears store bench and swap stories with his buddies. He wasn’t a very religious person, and hardly ever went to church; but he never stopped his wife or children from attending.

There are some
things worth mentioning about his lessons to his children: He always
stressed the importance of education, and that hard work would not kill
you. Also, to treat everybody fairly, don’t smoke cigarettes, drink in
moderation, no stealing, and most of all, don’t let people take
advantage of you.

Though
he had only an eighth-grade education, my father never resigned himself
to the idea that his children should not pursue every educational
opportunity available to us. When I was five, he hand-painted the ABC’s
on a strip of cardboard and hung it at eye level; I had to learn them
before I entered 1st grade.

Every
afternoon when he got home from work he would have me stand in front of
that cardboard strip and memorize that alphabet. I couldn’t go outside
to play until I finished my homework. After a while my younger brothers
(and sister) started to pay attention to this routine, and before long
they were memorizing what I was repeating. This was the beginning of
our quest for higher education.

If he
was with us today I think he would be proud of his children, and what
they have attained as a result of his commitment to our educational
needs, probably way beyond his wildest dreams. Or maybe not! Maybe he
knew all along that if he started with us early, we would always have a
thirst for knowledge. I hear parents bemoaning the fact that they can’t
afford to send their children to college. Or, if they don’t get a
scholarship, they can’t go to college. I never heard that from my
father — just the opposite!

I
remember the night I gave the Valedictorian’s speech for the 1968
graduating class of O. A. Peay High School – there my dad sat in his
only brown suit, smiling. Even though he didn’t live to see me graduate
from college four years later, in his heart he knew I would.

I told
my new sister-in-law Brenda (my brother Barney’s wife), that if we
brothers and sister got together, there is not anything we couldn’t
accomplish if we put our minds to it. I told her it’s not arrogance,
but a sense of accomplishment. Our father in hindsight gave us the
tools we needed to survive because he knew he would not be with us as
adults. I thank him for his foresight, and instilling in his children
the thirst for education.

I’m
happy to report that: I became an engineer, Sherman Earl is one of the
top ‘at-risk’ counselors in the world. Barney owns his own trucking and
delivery company in Houston, Texas, Gray is a short-order cook in New
Jersey, and Merna (Myrtle) is the assistant director of a prestigious
child care center in Maryland.

Happy Father’s Day Dad, and thanks for instilling in us your legacy in the power of an education.
~ Roy R. Harris, your oldest son.