The Measure of Ones Life :: Personal Narrative Essay Example

The Measure of a One's Life The measure of one's life is in his or her deeds. The life of Whittier Crocket Witherspoon has been remarkable in its scope of accomplishment and influence. He's been an educator, a school principal and teacher and a political leader who's met with presidents and the political elite of our country. In 1987 Gov. Jim Hunt awarded him the Order of the Long Leaf Pine (North Carolina's highest civilian award) for a lifetime of service, and his house is a treasure trove of awards, mementos and photographs. Yet, for all the awards, all the accolades, Witherspoon seems most proud of the lives he has touched and the children who have gone on to successful careers and lives. "I am pleased to note that I have kids who have received their doctorates, and masters, and are nurses and teachers," he says. "A number are ministers. Many in this community." He came to the Albemarle area in 1955 as the principal of what was then the Sawyers Creek School, the school for blacks in a segregated Camden County school system. The U.S. Supreme Court had just ordered the desegregation of schools, and over the next 13 years, as the nation struggled with issues of racial hatred and division, the Marion Anderson School, as it was renamed in 1957, remained an island of calm in the storm. Although they were turbulent times, Witherspoon did not feel complex answers were needed. "I told (students) that when they stepped on that bus, they were mine," he says. "I told them they should love one another. I treated everybody the same. My school was run on love. L-O-V-E." It is a philosophy that comes from the pulpit of his father, a Methodist minister who traveled "all over," in the words of Witherspoon. "I have looked up most of all to my father, and I have tried to follow in his footsteps," he says. "He attempted to train us (Witherspoon and his three brothers), and looking back over the years, I see that he did very well." The lessons he learned were based on love and respect: to respect oneself, love others and love and respect this country. Witherspoon served in the U.S. Army in the South Pacific during World War II, island hopping across forgotten atolls and nameless islands.