Al Nelson: Our Man for
All Seasons
On Monday, Oct. 15, 2018 at the First Baptist Church of North
Adams, we held a tribute to our late co-founder, Al Nelson. We unveiled our new sign for the Al Nelson Friendship Center and the commissioned painting of Al above. Scheduled speakers were North Adams Mayor Tom Bernard; Christa Collier, executive director of the Northern Berkshire United Way; and Mark Rondeau, friend and collaborator with Al. As prepared for delivery, Rondeau's tribute follows.
I first met Al Nelson in
1996 when I was editor of the Advocate. I went to the Northern
Berkshire United Way offices, then located at 85 Main Street, to do
an article.
Immediately upon meeting
Al, I recognized his voice from the radio. It was one of the voices I
heard on WMNB growing up in North Adams decades earlier. I had moved
away with my family in 1976 and moved back with my family in 1993. So
other than his voice, Al Nelson and his work were completely
unfamiliar to me.
I wrote a profile of Al
for the paper. What a nice, interesting and unassuming man, I
thought. Another of those people who made my hometown special.
Around the same time I
started going to monthly forums of the Northern Berkshire Community
Coalition. Al, of course, had been present at the creation of the
Coalition. Then he served it as board member and treasurer for many
years. I started sitting with Al at these Coalition forums.
He invited me to a prayer
breakfast at this, his church. He knew I liked sports and invited me
to meetings of the Sideline Quarterback Club at the Log in
Williamstown. For the uninitiated this is the Williams College
Football booster club.
(As an aside: the only
time I ever heard Al yell in anger was at Williams football games.)
As the years wore on Al
and I started to collaborate on the occasional project. At the
Advocate I wrote about Al and Anne going on a mission trip to
Romania. About 10 years ago, after a rough stretch of illness and
death in my family, I had the idea of creating a local caregiver
resource guide. The Coalition thought it was a good idea and we
started having committee meetings of interested parties.
Who was present at all the
meetings and actively involved? Al Nelson, of course.
A couple years later, in
2010, at a Coalition forum about the intersection of faith and
community, Al and I thought there should be more collaboration
between local houses of worship. The clergy present, under-supported
and overworked as they were – and are – challenged us in turn to
do something ourselves as laypeople.
So Al and I got talking.
Why not launch an Initiative to bring people of faith and goodwill
together to serve the community?
Along with some others involved,
the Northern Berkshire Interfaith Action Initiative was born. We
started looking for a project to collaborate on and bring people
together. We held monthly meetings looking for a project. We even
held a drumming circle at the 2010 North Adams Downtown Celebration.
By the end of 2010 and
beginning of 2011, things started coming together. The Friendship
Center was born. Al and everyone else involved got a crash course in
running a food pantry. I don't have to tell you the rest of the
story. I can say that all of you here tonight have been part of the
story as it has gone forward.
– – – – –
I'd like to shift here and
ask a rhetorical question? Why are we here tonight? Right here in
this place, on Saturday, July 21st, a nearly full church
honored Al Nelson. Wonderfully well done and emotional as that
service was, it was a closing of a book, like all such services. But
we need to take this book with us – and keep the spirit of the
story it tells alive.
We're here tonight to
carry Al's life and example forward with us into the future, most
specifically in the work we do at the Friendship Center – from now
forward the Al Nelson Friendship Center. We're here to honor a man
who came to this city for a job at the radio station and stayed to
build a life, lift a community and walk humbly with his Lord.
I'll offer that we're here
because the community needs Al Nelson. Who he was, what he stood for,
what he did and tried to do, how he treated people are signposts
along the way in a troubled, turbulent time. We're here to insure in
our small way that Al Nelson is remembered, that he remains a known
example to be imitated.
Al was a man of faith. It
was a non-negotiable with him. As I told a Berkshire Eagle reporter
working on a story about him, Al was one of the best Christians I
ever met. He took his faith very seriously and lived according to its
precepts.
Unlike some virtuous
people, however, Al was not judgmental. He also – and this is very
rare, in my experience – did not gossip or criticize people behind
their backs. It wasn't that Al wore rose-colored glasses – anything
but – he was a very realistic man who kept himself well informed
and knew exactly what was going on.
Al's response to problems
was very wise. Work steadily and quietly and don't get upset. Things
will work out. Be secure enough and strong enough to calmly wait and
see. Many times, in one way or the other, he taught me this lesson
and led me to take this approach. I regretted it when I didn't.
Al's kindness, service and
care of those in need were rooted in the Scripture and his daily walk
with the Lord. He was a gentleman, unfailingly respectful to all. You
know that he was a cheerful man, with a great sense of humor. He
loved to talk to people. And he loved to needle you – but it was
the most good-natured, loving needling in the world. He knew I worked
late, so when I showed up late to the Eagle Street Room on a
Wednesday, Al might proclaim: “He has risen!”
Al was a man of community.
He was all about building relationships, making connections and
reaching out to others. He was always concerned about how we could
help and collaborate with other food pantries and related services in
Northern Berkshire. He went out of his way, for instance, to include
Adams and Williamstown in our efforts to promote and report on the
results of the annual Letter Carrier Food Drive.
In doing these things, Al
was a meticulous, precise and thorough man. People have a hard time
reading my handwriting, but Al's penmanship was perfect. If I wanted
to talk to Al but saw he was starting to write a note, I would go do
something else, because it was going to take a while. Al did nothing
in a half-baked fashion.
He was a retired radio
journalist and he liked to ask questions. At many a board meeting of
the Initiative and Friendship Center, I would think we could move on
to another topic but Al would have one more question. Implied in this
question-asking is the fact that Al listened to the answers.
Because Al listened and
listened with empathy, he knew how to respond effectively to people
in difficult situations. Often he would tell audiences of things our
food pantry friends had told him: the man who had no pots or pans to
cook with. The woman with no refrigerator and no bed for her or her
child.
And Al never, never
promoted himself – never. He was totally mission-oriented. He not
only checked his ego at the door, he never brought it in the first
place. In fact, he had probably stored his ego in a box one day and
then forgot where he put the box. He wasn't falsely humble. He just
knew exactly who he was and what he was about and that was enough.
Service, kindness,
thoroughness, listening, respect, empathy, integrity, faith, love.
Words, words that can be just words, empty of real meaning. Al Nelson
filled them with reality. He embodied them with action.
– – – – –
I noted at the
beginning that I had heard Al Nelson's voice on WMNB decades before I
actually met him. I still hear his voice. I hear it in some of the
closings he used in his notes and emails to me and others about Initiative and
food pantry business.
“Blessings”
“We shall
overcome”
“Keep the
Strength”
And my
favorite:
“Stay out of
trouble and keep the faith --”
