When I first read this prompt and the brief description of it, I was certain I had no one to write about. Then I sat with it and thought about this date – today – January 28. It is also the birthdate of my father, William Gilbert Sammons, who was born on the 28th of January 1918.
He was many things in his life. The obvious – a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather. As an adult he had friends from his childhood he still knew and was in contact with. He held many different jobs, the most significant one was probably that of Baptist minister. It is that last job that made me think of him as an influencer.
He was a child of the depression whose father died when he was ten years old. A childhood injury kept him out of military service during World War II. He supposedly worked for a period time as a “repo man” with a local finance company. In the 1950 census his job was listed as a “cleaner distributor” in the dry-cleaning industry. Then he had spiritual calling; he went to Elohim Bible School in Castile New York, after graduation he became the minister of the Immanuel Baptist Church in Syracuse, until he retired in the 1980s. (sorry not sure of the exact date.)
A minister has great influence over many people. I believe he was just that, to the people in his congregation, the people in his neighborhood, the kids who left Clinton School each Tuesday to walk the short block to the church for “church school” and many other people whose paths crossed with his.
I could write a whole book, an entire blog, a treatise on the life of William G. Sammons (1918-1992). This is the first time I’ve ever used the term “influencer” to describe him, but that he was.
[I may add to this post as time goes by. I like using these online bio-pieces as works-in-progress.]