Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 9-22-17

Features
Attorneys Chosen As ‘Spirit Of Excellence Award’ Recipients
Motivational Speaker Honored By His Hometown Community
Donald Dowridge, Jr., left, with Cynthia Mingo, Director of the History Center; Donald L. Jones, President of the History Center and Ronald Hamilton.
The American Bar Associa- tion will hold its “Spirit of Excel- lence Award” Luncheon that will be held Saturday, February 3, from noon to 2 p.m. Pacific Time at the Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver, British Co- lumbia, Canada.
The 2018 award recipients
are:Alan N. Braverman, sen- ior executive vice president, gen- eral counsel and secretary of The Walt Disney Company since 2003. As the company’s chief legal officer, Braverman over- sees its team of attorneys re- sponsible for all aspects of Disney’s legal affairs around the world.
He specialized in complex commercial and administrative litigation. Braverman also was a law clerk for Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Thomas W. Pomeroy, Jr. Braverman, a Boston native, earned his J.D. degree from Duquesne University.
Major General (Ret.) Kenneth D. Gray, a native of McDowell County, W. Va., was the first African American gen- eral in the history of the ac- tive Army Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps.
He received his B.A. degree in political science from West Virginia State College in 1966 and was commissioned a second lieutenant from the Reserve Of- ficers Training Corps. In 1969, he received his J.D. from West Virginia University’s College of Law, where he was the only African American student for the entire three years he attended.
He is a graduate of the Judge Advocate General’s School Basic and Advanced Courses at the
ALAN N. BRAVERMAN
MAJOR GENERAL (RET.)KENNETH D. GRAY
HEATHER KENDALL- MILLER
JUDGE JAMES A. WYNN, JR.
University of Virginia, and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Fort McNair in Wash- ington, D.C.
Gray graduated with honors from the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Following his military career, Gray served as vice president for student af- fairs at West Virginia University in Morgantown.
Heather Kendall-Miller,
an Alaska Native (Athabascan), is a senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund in Anchorage. Kendall-Miller is a graduate of Harvard Law School and has dedicated her career to public service.
She was a law clerk at the Alaska Supreme Court and then served as a Skadden Fellow, where she worked as a staff at- torney for the Alaska Legal Serv- ices Corporation representing indigent clients in court and in administrative hearings.
During the second year of her fellowship, she worked for the Native American Rights Fund, where she continues her groundbreaking work. With more than 25 years practicing in federal and state courts, Kendall-Miller has estab- lished foundational legal princi- ples protecting Native American
subsistence, tribal sovereignty and human rights. Her activities outside the law include board memberships with the ABA Sec- tion of Individual Rights and Re- sponsibilities, the Wilderness Society, the Alaska Native Jus- tice Center, the Social Justice Fund, the Honoring Nations Governing Board and the Con- servation Foundation. In addi- tion, she serves on the Alaska Supreme Court Committee on Fairness and Access to the Judi- cial System and as liaison to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Judge James A. Wynn, Jr., serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va. Wynn was nominated for the bench by President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously in 2010.
Prior to his appointment, Wynn served for 20 years on the North Carolina Court of Ap- peals and Supreme Court of North Carolina. He received his J.D. from Marquette University School of Law and an LL.M. in Judicial Process from the Uni- versity of Virginia School of Law. Wynn’s legal career began in the U.S. Navy JAG Corps, where he served for four years on active duty and 26 years in the reserves.
BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor
He is well-known in the Tampa community as ‘Frederick Douglass’
When people make the com- ment about not forgetting the bridge that brought you across, Donald L. Dowridge, Jr. who remembers its importance in so many conversations.
Just recently, to his surprise, the motivational guru was in- ducted into the Turner Station Museum in Baltimore, MD. The museum is the home some na- tional notables, from entertain- ers, teachers, scientists, and astronauts. Kweisi Mfume, for- mer NAACP President, and Calvin Hill, former Dallas Cow- boys running back, are among the notables who have been inducted.
A resident of Tampa since 1974, Dowridge recalls what he calls his “harsh” upbringing. By the time he was 2 years old, he was in his 2nd foster home. The home, though harsh, had a loving foster father and mother and lov- ing foster brothers and sisters, he said.
“Big Daddy,” as Dowridge was called, and the family resided at 307 Pine St., along with an uncle and aunt. Ronald Hamil- ton was the oldest of the foster children and often saved Donald from what he calls, “harsh abuse.”
In 1965, Dowridge went to his third foster home after Mrs. Morris died and it was deter- mined that Mr. Morris could not care for the children alone.
Since leaving Baltimore,
The Turner Station History Center where Donald Dowridge was inducted last month.
Dowridge returns to visit on a regular basis to visit family, friends and the Turner Station community. He makes sure he and Ronald spend valuable time together.
And so it was this past August when Dowridge went back to Baltimore for a family reunion and baby shower. While there, he and Ronald made a trip to Turner Station, took pictures of the old home on Pine St. and vis- ited with friends.
When they visited the Turner’s Station History Center, Dowridge was surprised, thanks to Ronald, that there was a small celebration to induct him into the Turner’s Station Museum for his support and dedication to that community.
“I felt the blessings of God upon my life to have overcome such odds to achieve this inclu- sion as part of my milestone of life,” he said of the induction. It was a surprise that will last a life- time. It’s humbling and I am hon- ored. It’s proof that with God all things are possible to overcome!,” he concluded.
PAGE 4-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2017