THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 14, 1997 TAG: 9701140205
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER AND ANGELITA PLEMMER, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 65 lines
The Rev. Bernard E. Spellman has died after serving in the country's oldest civil-rights organization for more than two decades.
Spellman, 57, was beginning his fifth year as president of the Norfolk branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which has about 1,500 paid members. On Jan. 5, he was sworn in for his third two-year term and had been a member of the national organization since 1970.
According to friends, Spellman's death on Sunday was apparently sudden and unexpected. A pall of disbelief spread throughout the local organization as word of his death passed among them.
``I don't know how to describe it. Everybody is just in a daze. It's an unbelievable situation,'' branch treasurer Melinease Hutchinson, who had spoken with Spellman twice Saturday, said Monday. ``This is devastating because this man was so full of life and he was so sure of his plans for where the branch should go.''
``He really worked diligently to promote the NAACP,'' said the Rev. L.P. Watson, past president of the Norfolk branch. ``He worked hard to inform the public what the NAACP was all about and how they could assist in its efforts to assist underprivileged people.''
Spellman had immersed himself in NAACP activities up to the end, including being one of several NAACP honorees at a breakfast Saturday commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Hutchinson said Spellman was enthused about plans to reinvigorate the local NAACP Youth Council.
Hutchinson said she believed the local branch will try to dedicate 1997 to Spellman's legacy by making progress on his two principal areas of interest: youth and economic development.
``He loved young people . . . and was gung-ho on education,'' Hutchinson said, noting Spellman's earlier career as a school administrator in Chesapeake. ``He always said, `If we lose the young people, we are lost.' He felt they should know about the NAACP and it's history.''
Spellman's interest in economic development also meant trying to help fellow African-Americans become successful business entrepreneurs and investors.
``He would say, `We have to stop being just consumers but learn how to be in charge of our own fate, be business people, be investors,' '' Hutchinson said. ``This man had a dream, a vision. He would always say, `This is going to be the year we break out of it.' ''
Spellman's leadership of the local branch was that of ``a builder,'' Hutchinson said.
``A lot of people look at the NAACP as being a civil-rights organization just for blacks. He was determined that we were going to reach out to every segment of the community. . . . If nothing else, he was a bridge builder,'' Hutchinson said.
Spellman was a graduate of Norfolk State University and Virginia State University. He was an assistant principal at Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake and a principal at Great Bridge Intermediate School and Great Bridge Junior High School. He was also a member of Second Calvary Baptist Church.
A funeral is planned for noon Thursday at Second Calvary Baptist Church, 2940 Corprew Ave.
The branch will begin discussing plans for a successor at its regular monthly meeting, already scheduled for 7:30 tonight in the Huntersville Recreation Center, 830 Goff St. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
The Rev. Bernard E. Spellman
KEYWORDS: NAACP DEATH OBITUARY PRESIDENT