Rev. Dr. Anderson Clary, Jr. '69 — Faith, love, and basketball

Get to know Rev. Dr. Anderson Clary, Jr. ’69, who was honored last week with Providence College's MLK Vision Award, recognizing people who advance the principles embodied by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We talked with him on the Providence College Podcast about his path from segregated schools in Virginia to playing basketball for coaches Joe Mullaney ’65Hon, ’98Hon. and Dave Gavitt ’89Hon.; his work as the first black high school teacher in Pawtucket, R.I.; and the mentors at Providence College who guided his call to ministry.

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Creators & Guests

Host

Liz Kay

Director of Social Media & Special Projects

Producer

Chris Judge

Multimedia and Live Event Producer

What is Providence College Podcast?

The Providence College Podcast features interviews with interesting members of the Friar Family. These in-depth conversations with PC students, Dominicans, faculty, staff, and alumni provide a rich look into the lives of noteworthy Friars. Occasionally we will also bring you on-campus lectures and presentations. Go Friars!

00;00;00;22 - 00;00;21;02
Liz Kay
Hello and welcome to the Providence College Podcast. I'm your host, Liz Kaye, and I'm joined by producer Chris Judge of the Class of 2005 here on the Providence College Podcast. We bring you interesting stories from the Friar family. This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Reverend Dr. Anderson Clary Jr. A member of the Class of 1969 and one of two recipients of Providence College's MLK Vision Award this year.

00;00;21;26 - 00;00;45;13
Liz Kay
Reverend Cleary was a basketball player at Providence College where he studied secondary education and later became the first black high school teacher in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He earned his doctorate in sacred scripture from Kenan Theological Seminary in Hampton, Virginia, and taught in institutions such as Harvard Divinity School, Richmond, Virginia Seminary and Hampton University. Clary served as pastor of Queen Street Baptist Church in Hampton for more than two decades.

00;00;46;02 - 00;00;59;19
Liz Kay
He was also chair of the Virginia Governor's Commission on National and Community Service, as well as held several elected offices such as commissioner of the eighth District in the city of Hampton. Reverend, thank you so much for joining us and congratulations on your award.

00;00;59;26 - 00;01;01;21
Anderson Clary
You're welcome. And thank you.

00;01;02;07 - 00;01;06;25
Liz Kay
So if we could start at the beginning. You grew up in Hampton Roads, Virginia. What brought you to Providence College?

00;01;07;11 - 00;01;45;18
Anderson Clary
I was recruited. Very interesting story in my home. Newport News. Family doctor. I was a graduate of the class of 41. Great Doctor Gregory Carter, and he's from Japan in Rhode Island. And he is the nephew along with his brother, June Carter, who's a dentist. God rest both of their souls and they were the nephews of the Narragansett Indians.

00;01;46;13 - 00;02;20;06
Anderson Clary
Chief Ferris Dove and Princess Red Wing and how he got to Newport News, I don't know. But he was a doctor and I got injured playing high school basketball. And I came to him and he treated me. He said, How would you like to see my alma mater? I had several offers. I was a senior, and he said, It's up there in the north is coal.

00;02;20;17 - 00;02;52;24
Anderson Clary
There are no girls in the school, you said, and you got to get them books. And so I said, okay. So he took me up. The year was 65, and Providence was ranked number one in the country. Sports Illustrated it, and they were 19 and oh, took me up to see the game. We met at Catholic University House of Studies, the Dominican House of Studies, and we got on a bus and we went up to Villanova.

00;02;53;04 - 00;03;38;22
Anderson Clary
Well, they lost that game. That was the first loss of the year. Still, they were ranked number one. Number two. And I met Joe Mulaney and Dave Gavitt, God rest their their souls. And I met the team Jimmy Walker, Mike Riordan, Jimmy Benedict, Dexter Westbrook, and Coach Gavitt said, he said, You play basketball. And I said, Yeah, an interesting thing, Liz, is I played in a segregated there was no integration of sports in the South in the sixties and he said, well, what school?

00;03;38;24 - 00;04;05;24
Anderson Clary
Ask him all these things. And he said, Well, I haven't heard anything. Well, they didn't because, you know, they just didn't write a lot of stuff about black athletes in any sport. And so he said sent the manager up to his room. Coach Gavitt gave me an application and said, If you're interested, send me this application. I sent the application.

00;04;06;13 - 00;04;34;28
Anderson Clary
Two weeks later, I was playing hooky in the nurse's office. I got a call to the to the main office. I said, Oh, you know, I'm in trouble now. He said, You have a phone call. It was Coach Gavitt. And he said, Andy, this is Dave Gavitt, and I'm calling on behalf of Joe Mulaney and we want to offer you a scholarship to play basketball for Providence College.

00;04;35;18 - 00;05;13;16
Anderson Clary
And he said, We're going to fly you up if you're willing and let you see the school, etc., etc.. And that's how it started. Now, I think it's important to understand I had about a hundred scholarship offers to universities because that was a what do they call it, the Merit Scholar. I took the merit exam. And so all these schools, but they were academic scholarships, all of the major universities in the country.

00;05;13;16 - 00;05;48;03
Anderson Clary
And I had only five academic athletic scholarships, and I only had really one to a major college. And then once the other colleges, Syracuse, NYU, who had a program in Michigan U. With the Castro also, and Oliver Darden, those guys and Stanford, they found out on the only, you know, recruitment wire who was being recruited. So I got inquiries for them.

00;05;49;02 - 00;06;21;08
Anderson Clary
But I came to Providence College and I met Dave and I met Joe and Chris Clark and all of the. Mr. Van Curry credit. God rest all of those guys souls. And they were just so my mother put it this way, He said, she said, if for no other reason, son, go to that school. Those people are filled with the milk of human kindness.

00;06;21;08 - 00;06;45;15
Anderson Clary
The other thing was they said, Andy, if you come here and you decide the day after you get here that you don't want to play basketball, your scholarship is good. So my dad of few words said, Well, who are you going to think about? And so the rest is history.

00;06;47;04 - 00;06;56;07
Liz Kay
So I think you alluded a little bit to your your high school experience. Mm hmm. And can you tell us a little bit more compare and contrast what it was like to come from, you know.

00;06;56;25 - 00;07;23;19
Anderson Clary
A black high school, segregated high school, playing in a segregated league to come here? Well, I thought as well I'm sure they're going to rule me with some other blacks, which was not the case. I was wrong with two hockey players, one from Charlestown and one from Jamaica Plain. And so freshman year and I didn't know any difference.

00;07;23;19 - 00;07;51;27
Anderson Clary
I mean, I was here to play basketball and I kept hearing Dr. Carter, God rest his soul, as I said, saying, You got to get them books, you got to get them books. So I had been academic, all-American in high school. And as course, you know, I scored well on the merit exam. So it was that that kind of took my attention away from the fact that you're in an integrated society now.

00;07;52;20 - 00;08;10;15
Anderson Clary
You know, my neighborhood, everything was segregated. And it was like for some reason I just wasn't in all because the people were so nice as my mother said to, everybody was filled with the milk of human kindness. And I found that to be true.

00;08;10;24 - 00;08;16;21
Liz Kay
Well, it feels like that that family that you found when you were here continues to this day.

00;08;16;21 - 00;08;17;12
Anderson Clary
To this day.

00;08;17;13 - 00;08;31;12
Liz Kay
We were talking on the day of the MLK Prayer Breakfast where they honored the MLK Vision Award recipients. And you were joined not only by your wife and family, but also four of your friends from the class of 1969. How did you meet them and how did you remain connected after your days in D.C.?

00;08;31;18 - 00;09;08;09
Anderson Clary
The main mover and shaker for my nomination was my roommate, Mike Stapleton, and he was from Syracuse, New York. And he told me years later that he had never known a black man in his life. He said, But our experience rooming together taught him how to deal with people of all races, creeds and colors, nationalities and religious persuasions.

00;09;08;23 - 00;09;15;19
Anderson Clary
And it was the key thing they've benefited him when he went into the military and began to lead men.

00;09;16;08 - 00;09;17;12
Liz Kay
And so Mike was one of those.

00;09;17;17 - 00;09;18;20
Anderson Clary
Who was here today.

00;09;18;24 - 00;09;21;11
Liz Kay
Yeah. And was he one of those two freshmen roommates?

00;09;22;21 - 00;09;55;16
Anderson Clary
Mike No, we knew each other. We didn't room together. So sophomore year. Okay. And the other was he also supported me too. Jerry Murphy He was here on a hockey scholarship and he was from Maine. And so and the rest of those guys, we lived on the same floor and, you know, and I'm just overwhelmed that that relationship we had, I can truly say we didn't see color.

00;09;56;22 - 00;10;03;25
Anderson Clary
We saw people. We saw each other. And and it's remain that way 50 years later.

00;10;04;10 - 00;10;11;28
Liz Kay
You were playing on this integrated team with John Mulaney. Can you hear any highlights of your your times on the team?

00;10;11;29 - 00;10;23;14
Anderson Clary
Well, yeah, they were all had to do with the greatest player that Providence College is ever had. Even I just met Hinton.

00;10;24;19 - 00;10;25;07
Liz Kay
Donta Hinton.

00;10;25;17 - 00;11;15;07
Anderson Clary
That broke. Well, he's number two. Jimmy Walker was number one in terms of score all time scoring champion here. And that was kind of like playing would walk. The walk was like a dream come true and it was like I learned so much because I used to imitate everything he did. Now I was never as good as Walker, but Coach Mulaney used to have me play him every day because teams used to play what we call a box and one and they'd have for me and boxed in a zone and their best defensive player playing walk.

00;11;15;23 - 00;11;33;18
Anderson Clary
So I was the defensive player that played walk in practices, and so I became a very good defensive player playing the best player in college basketball every day.

00;11;34;05 - 00;11;38;17
Liz Kay
Chris is shaking his head. He's a former basketball manager, so I think this is very familiar to him. This technique.

00;11;38;21 - 00;12;11;05
Anderson Clary
Yeah, that's that's the single most. The other thing was playing for Dave Gavitt and playing for Joe Mulaney. Historically, we just took a picture outside of the the bronze statue with them, and I sat down next to Dave. I said, that kid I was Joe had both of us. So I sat down next to Dave and leaned in, so it looked like Dave was still mentoring us.

00;12;11;20 - 00;12;33;04
Anderson Clary
And that was that was it. Because I had read about Joe Mulaney and the fame combination defense and all this stuff, and I said, Oh, God, you know, it's like, what am I going to do? Am I going to make this team? Well, I've been recruited, but didn't mean I was going to, you know, I mean, they did mean I keep my scholarship, but to play with something else.

00;12;33;04 - 00;13;09;25
Anderson Clary
And so we played every major team in the sixties that was ranked top that we played them all and we beat them all except Carl. Salt Lake was Salt Lake City, Utah, Utah State. And what fell out of that game. So but we beat them all. We lost a couple of here in there, but so that was a thrill.

00;13;10;05 - 00;13;20;27
Liz Kay
One of those players you had played against was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It is so interesting to have you back here for MLK convocation, but because he was our speaker recently.

00;13;20;27 - 00;13;21;17
Anderson Clary
You told me that.

00;13;22;00 - 00;13;26;16
Liz Kay
Oh, yeah. So can you tell us what that experience was like?

00;13;27;04 - 00;14;00;09
Anderson Clary
One saying says it all. We were told we were. We played him one man behind him who was Ray Johnson, our center, who was six, eight. Kareem, seven two. And we would drop down and put somebody in front of him. So you had somebody in front and behind and that was our M.O. for you couldn't stop him but trying to contain him.

00;14;01;21 - 00;14;24;18
Anderson Clary
And I went out to the corner to check Sidney Wicks, who was transfer, and he came Rookie of the Year for Portland when he was drafted by a pro. And Sidney Wicks had the ball and then he threw the ball up in the air. And I looked up. I said, Where is it on this pole, too? And I followed the path of the ball up near the rafters.

00;14;24;18 - 00;15;02;12
Anderson Clary
And then all of a sudden I see this hand come up out of nowhere and catch the ball, bring it down, take one step out towards the corner. And the second step, he was like 15 feet from the rim and shoot the famous skyhook. I'd never seen anything like that in my life. No slam dunks, no behind. And it was a great pass, no behind the back one bounce into the hole.

00;15;04;03 - 00;15;22;28
Anderson Clary
That was the most amazing thing that I had ever seen a basketball player on any level do just 15 foot skyhook and it was a skyhook.

00;15;23;17 - 00;15;25;01
Liz Kay
And you had a front row seat to that.

00;15;26;15 - 00;15;35;02
Anderson Clary
Back room because I was down here and he was. But I did have a seat.

00;15;35;02 - 00;15;39;10
Liz Kay
I'm curious what it was like for you to be a spectator at last night's Creighton game at the AMP?

00;15;40;12 - 00;16;20;11
Anderson Clary
Well, being a former player and being in an era where there was no three point shot and ball possession one way or another on jump balls and, you know, contested plays and being in the stands and watching those plays and the other thing was Providence College having a head coach in Ed Cooley. I mean, I remember when Ed Cooley was a kid, I think he went to either Assumption or Stonehill, Stone Hill.

00;16;20;24 - 00;16;49;06
Anderson Clary
Okay. He was there. Stone Hill and he lived the next street over from my wife's family over there in West Elmwood. So to see this little not in those kid come up and be what he is today is like that in and of itself. And last night's game was one of the best coached games that I've ever seen and one of the best played games hotly contested all the way.

00;16;49;12 - 00;17;14;03
Anderson Clary
And I just met Carter outside and it was like, man, I I'm just it's an honor to shake your hand because he made the key block last night in overtime that turned the game our way. It was seesaw away, but that turned the game our way to the last buzzer.

00;17;14;14 - 00;17;17;12
Liz Kay
You mentioned your wife, who's a Providence native. How did the two of you meet?

00;17;17;22 - 00;18;04;23
Anderson Clary
Who? That's another story. But the short end of it was Father Sicard, my wife and I work for Fleet National Bank. I was a commercial lending officer. Father Sicard was an auditor. Kenny was an audit in all respect to his father, and my wife was a credit investigator and she worked for me for credit investigation. Father Sicard was audit and everybody, when the auditors came in to, you know, view and assess your stuff in-house, everybody trembled, you know.

00;18;04;23 - 00;18;25;12
Anderson Clary
But I say, what's to be afraid of? You know, you want to know what you're doing. And so Father Sekhar Kenny Sicard got a call and I told him this today, got a call to the ministry through to the priesthood and all orders of a Kenny. I don't want to do that. You got a great career, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00;18;25;26 - 00;18;54;02
Anderson Clary
And he said no. And and he came back to Providence College and he gave his car to Lianne Britto, my wife. Now, we were not dating then that she was dating another auditor, but that was how we go back. And today, well, actually last night, because we sat on his row and listen and he had a great reunion.

00;18;54;10 - 00;18;55;06
Liz Kay
Oh, that's amazing.

00;18;55;06 - 00;18;58;22
Anderson Clary
So what goes around comes around.

00;18;58;25 - 00;19;01;02
Liz Kay
That that's got to be the most Rhode Island story we've told on the.

00;19;01;02 - 00;19;03;02
Anderson Clary
Podcast. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

00;19;03;22 - 00;19;15;11
Liz Kay
Yeah. If you could only have prefaced it by we used to park at the place that used to be the Coca-Cola factory, that would that would just seal the deal.

00;19;15;11 - 00;19;18;12
Anderson Clary
So that really.

00;19;18;12 - 00;19;34;17
Liz Kay
So let's talk a little bit about your time after Providence College. Okay. It seems astonishing that Pawtucket did not have any black high school teachers until you arrived. Yeah. What were your years in the classroom like? What brought you to that district?

00;19;34;20 - 00;20;11;16
Anderson Clary
Well, that was the time when, if you all remember the television show room 222 and you're too young. But they had it was about a high school and all of these students and they had a black teacher. Okay. And the kids at Pawtucket kind of saw themselves in me as their own room 2 to 2. And so it was a great time.

00;20;11;16 - 00;20;36;20
Anderson Clary
And then coming out of P.C. and my advisors there, Mr. T Lo Marguerita and Mr. Dan McKenna, who are also PC alone, I was under their wing and then all the kids, you know, they're still right. Look, I was 22. These are some of these kids that I was teaching 18 years old. And so, you know, it was like and they are.

00;20;37;13 - 00;21;08;20
Anderson Clary
Mr. Cleary. Mr. Cleary They never called me and they always gave me the respect. And I said, okay. And while I was teaching at Pawtucket and Dr. Shea was the Superintendent of schools, he was a PC alum and he said to me, he said, I want to take you through the ranks. And one day I'd like to see you become the superintendent of schools here.

00;21;09;22 - 00;21;43;29
Anderson Clary
And it was his in there were there were 1500 applications for that position at now Shea, Pawtucket West and there were 1500 applications for like ten jobs in the Pawtucket school system to teach high school. So I don't know if that's a bad thing or is he showed prejudice or due diligence one or the other. But that's how I got there.

00;21;44;05 - 00;21;47;20
Liz Kay
I'm sure there's a lot of students in the classes who needed to see a face like.

00;21;47;23 - 00;22;22;27
Anderson Clary
Or excuse me, I didn't say I had student taught there. Ha. So that's that had gave me the inside track. And then I have a P.S. student teaching there and having two alums as my supervisors and mentors in the, in the school and the faculty and then having a superintendent. And so I think it was a fair I don't think it was unfair that I was chosen.

00;22;24;08 - 00;22;26;05
Anderson Clary
Okay. I mean, I.

00;22;26;26 - 00;22;28;16
Liz Kay
Know they saw your work in the glass.

00;22;28;16 - 00;23;07;09
Anderson Clary
Have you put your résumé anywhere in this country? And it says, Be a masters, whatever, from Providence College that put you up here. I'm telling you, I mean, the reputation the president of the bank that Kinney father Sicard, my wife and I work for, he was a PC graduate, the president of the bank, Mr. John Cummings, the vice president of the Bank of Philly.

00;23;07;09 - 00;23;47;22
Anderson Clary
Mr. Henry Tingley. All of the bank were PC grads. So, you know, and PCs. I mean, Providence and Rhode Island is the smallest state and PC is the biggest university and it only had a population then of there were in my freshman class, there were 750 freshmen Alumni Hall Hotel, 3300 people. And now we play before 40,000 apiece.

00;23;48;25 - 00;23;49;21
Liz Kay
It's pretty incredible.

00;23;49;24 - 00;23;50;04
Anderson Clary
Yeah.

00;23;50;21 - 00;24;02;10
Liz Kay
You have taught all your life you've been in the classroom, mostly in higher education. What was your motivation for education? What prompted you to major in education in the first place?

00;24;03;08 - 00;24;39;15
Anderson Clary
My mother has had all of them a pass. My mother had four sisters and she was the fifth and they were all educators. And I was home schooled beginning at age two and it was just something that I was always around. You know, our families were always teaching the kids, always teaching the kids. And then we would play school and we would teach the younger kids.

00;24;39;23 - 00;24;42;18
Anderson Clary
So it was just a natural thing.

00;24;42;24 - 00;24;43;18
Liz Kay
And family business.

00;24;45;01 - 00;24;46;26
Anderson Clary
Yes.

00;24;46;26 - 00;24;54;10
Liz Kay
Let's talk a little bit about your transition into ministry. It's curious how your path went from a classroom at Pawtucket West to the pulpit.

00;24;55;02 - 00;25;34;24
Anderson Clary
Well, it was certainly not what I thought. But the first thing is when I was a freshman and I was in Father Robert Quinn's Education psychology of education class, and he used to come in in his habits, you know, and and the in his rosary and, you know, the garb, the priest garb. And I saw something in him that was beyond his outagamie and the influence that he had on me.

00;25;35;09 - 00;26;46;14
Anderson Clary
It was like a voice said to me, I want you to be a priest. You know, I was like, I'm freshman. I said, I here to play basketball. I don't have time for that, you know? And so I that was my first epiphany, didn't pay any attention, went on, did my four years here at the teaching job. And in 1976, I founded a environmental management firm that we did secured research for the department, the federal Department of Defense, and we were now back to the Dr. Carter alum who introduced me to P.C. I talked to him in 76 and we were just starting a business.

00;26;46;14 - 00;27;19;05
Anderson Clary
Now we're in Rhode Island. And he said, Well, have you you need to talk to my buddy. His buddy was at Brooke. Senator Ed Brooke from Massachusetts, first Massachusetts, United States Senator Black, Senator. We shot up to Ed Brooke's office, went in to see him. He sent us over to Small Business Administration. He said, tell Talbot Lee, give you what you need.

00;27;19;16 - 00;27;47;21
Anderson Clary
You then said, well, we want you. So what you need? They financed us. We went into business. We were the first 100% minority firm to do significant contracts for Department of Defense. We were on the verge of signing a multi-year million dollar contract with Hanscom Air Force Base up here in Massachusetts. And I should be happy because we'd been working hard.

00;27;47;21 - 00;28;14;05
Anderson Clary
We had given up everything to invest in the business. I was at home, I was single at home, sitting down and going to put on a steak and get a frosty mug of beer and just celebrate. And I got very depressed. Didn't know why. I said, Why am I so depressed? And and I just put my head down and I said, Lord, what would you have me to do?

00;28;14;05 - 00;28;55;03
Anderson Clary
And the words came back as clear as I'm talking to you, Preach my word. What? Lord, I'm getting ready to make history again in business. I said, You know what would you have me to do? He said, Preach my word. And from there I came back to Providence College into their master's program and and concentrated in the three areas that you could get a degree in biblical studies, religious studies and Christian education.

00;28;56;02 - 00;29;51;08
Anderson Clary
And and I was going to convert from being a Baptist to being a priest, a Catholic priest. And I told Father Collins that, and he shared it with some of the other priests. And so they were so receptive and they were. So you cringing. And I went all the way through the program. But then I didn't go to take the whatever they do to make you a priest because I wanted to have a family and I that regretfully.

00;29;51;08 - 00;30;18;29
Anderson Clary
But I said, Father, I can't go this route. And with tears in my eyes is now. And he said, That's okay. He said, Whatever the Lord is calling you to do, do it. And so I closed my business a couple of years. The two were not really that close to business a couple of years later, because politics changed.

00;30;19;19 - 00;30;57;09
Anderson Clary
And I was here during that time and I was down to the last course, which was Hebrew. You had to take at least two languages. So I took Greek and Hebrew, and that was when I made that decision. And so I became a licensed Baptist pastor minister, and then I pastored a church on Hyannis Port, Mass. And five years.

00;30;57;09 - 00;31;44;18
Anderson Clary
And then I got a call, not again, to come back home and pastor a church, a historic black church was founded in 1865, and I came home and they elect in the Baptist. They vote to the autonomous body. You don't get sent there. God does send you. And I was voted the past in 1990, December, 1991, March. I took the position, moved my family back to Newport News, Virginia, and I pastored there for 23 years.

00;31;44;18 - 00;31;54;16
Anderson Clary
I retired in July of 2014 and here I am.

00;31;55;11 - 00;32;10;11
Liz Kay
And this is an amazing story because, I mean, this is another contrast from your your upbringing. I mean, you I we didn't talk about this. You weren't raised Catholic. So coming here must have been quite a transition as well. What was your faith life like before and during Providence College?

00;32;10;11 - 00;32;42;08
Anderson Clary
Well, see, in in in the South and maybe other places, you didn't go to church Sunday School come back in the afternoon to what they call Baptist training you and you beat you. You my father use reverse psychology. He said. You don't have to go to church. You don't have to go to Sunday school. You don't have to go to bece you, but you're not doing anything else on Sunday.

00;32;42;08 - 00;33;07;19
Anderson Clary
You're not riding your bike, you're not playing basketball, you're not doing it, you're not watching television. It's your choice. So I said, Well, I can't do those things anyway, you know, in the Baptist faith. But I said, okay. So I went to church, went to Sunday school, and I just stayed in. But that that time I was a teenager.

00;33;07;28 - 00;33;41;26
Anderson Clary
I didn't get baptized. I was 16 years old. And that time during that time, I then I come to college and I am introduced to these priests and nuns and professors and students that are filled with the milk of human kindness. I said, This is where the Lord wants me. So then fast forward. He calls me after that initial call, that epiphany when I was a freshman.

00;33;42;11 - 00;34;16;03
Anderson Clary
And so then 1976, which is, you know, do the math from 1965 and 80, 1860, 60, 76 is ten years. So I was doing whatever teaching to are close to Saint Wakefield's input circuit, the head coach there for a time. And that's kind of like how it wasn't like, I'm here and then and then I'm baptism Catholic. No, I'm not Catholic.

00;34;16;24 - 00;34;32;22
Anderson Clary
I want to go here. It wasn't like it was. It was? It may sound like a choppy back and forth, but it was a natural progression. So natural progression, as I see, you know.

00;34;33;28 - 00;34;43;06
Liz Kay
I mean, it seems like an evolution for your your faith life, but it seems interesting to think about it as the inspiration of the Dominican.

00;34;43;24 - 00;34;44;14
Anderson Clary
After the priest.

00;34;44;14 - 00;34;44;24
Liz Kay
Here.

00;34;45;02 - 00;35;25;22
Anderson Clary
Adds, the inspiration of the priests and the educate you. I said that in the in the at the breakfast yeah the education I bar none born and particularly with my colleagues who most of which are black and when I was ordained by a black and I was ordained by a New England conference of black pastors, typically that's what they wanted to be known as black pastors.

00;35;25;29 - 00;36;06;14
Anderson Clary
And the first thing they say to me say, well, Kyra, you don't have enough black theology. Well, I wasn't one to just sit back. I said, well, I don't see anywhere in the Bible where there is a color differentiation. I do see that God is no respecter of persons. And I hear Paul saying, whether you are a Gentile Jew slave or free Jew Greek, he's no respect of persons.

00;36;06;14 - 00;36;34;26
Anderson Clary
And so they kind of backed off me from that. But they did hold me on my feet for 3 hours in an oral examination. Well, that was like the story of Bro Rabbit and Broad Band of Fox. And he said, Please don't throw me in the lie in the Brier patch. And they threw him in the Brier patch and he ran away and said, I was born and bred in a Brat pack.

00;36;34;26 - 00;37;20;26
Anderson Clary
What they did on my feet for 3 hours. That's what I was trained to do here in my exams, undergraduate and graduate. And, and the rationale was, if you go off the question, we can bring you back. So I was like, you guys, you know, give me a glass of water and let's keep on going. So and at my ordination, the the catechism, they call it the catechism of of my ordination said to the congregation that this man has gone through the most grueling ordination examination that we've ever had.

00;37;22;13 - 00;37;23;25
Liz Kay
And it sounds you came out smiling.

00;37;23;25 - 00;37;30;08
Anderson Clary
Piece of cake because of Providence College and my educational preparation.

00;37;30;19 - 00;37;43;20
Liz Kay
Among the many things you taught in all of your education experiences, the pastoral counseling was one was key, and you were later recognized in your career for the counseling you did with inner city youth and their families.

00;37;43;25 - 00;37;44;07
Anderson Clary
Yeah.

00;37;44;22 - 00;37;50;00
Liz Kay
Can you share a little bit about that work with us and kind of your approach to counseling?

00;37;50;04 - 00;38;23;00
Anderson Clary
Well, I take my lead from the WW J Day. What would Jesus do? And so in a word he said love you to one another. So and I said this to fathers the court today that he was the embodiment of what I had seen myself as being not a president, but a priest. And I said, And I love you for that.

00;38;23;00 - 00;38;55;17
Anderson Clary
I said that I know that when they were telling you had to buy, Why do you want to do this? Why you under? And I said, I know you did this, Candy, because of your compassion for the ministry, your compassion for the service with God as your chief CEO. And that's how I led people. Jesus led people from the front.

00;38;56;00 - 00;39;32;13
Anderson Clary
You cannot lead sheep like cattle. You can't drive them from behind. You have to get in front. He said himself, I want to get to theologically. Jesus says, Follow me and I will make you fishers of man. And so that's how I tried to exemplify my faith and to bring help by leading people and not trying to sell and go over here or go there.

00;39;32;14 - 00;39;40;11
Anderson Clary
And I see that you bring results. I lead from example.

00;39;41;18 - 00;39;55;16
Liz Kay
In declaring you you've spent so much of your life in service and in not just in service to ministry, but also in elective office. Can you talk a little bit about your government work and what motivated you and inspired you there?

00;39;56;08 - 00;40;37;25
Anderson Clary
Well, quickly, I saw that we needed some representation, representation and some leadership in the particular district. You, Hampton, is ten districts and the people were not being served. It was a cloistered group of administrators and elected officials that were leading the various districts. And my church was in District seven I'm sorry, District eight, seven and eight, and I was asked to run.

00;40;37;25 - 00;41;13;00
Anderson Clary
And so I had a good at one time my church had like 2000 parishioners. So that's 2000 votes. And so I was asked to run for that particular position. I was elected by popular vote. I served in that position. Then I was asked to run for school board and by the powers that be. And I did run and I was elected to the school board.

00;41;13;00 - 00;41;55;27
Anderson Clary
Then I was asked if I would consider an appointment to the City council, which is the city council run city. And I said, okay. And so they had 30 some applicants that went before city council, and I was selected and I was appointed to City council, City Council for four years. So that was my political Prior to that in Rhode Island, I was a lobbyist for for the urban League and we lobbied the state legislature.

00;41;56;19 - 00;42;00;13
Liz Kay
But that must have been a huge commitment of time. In addition to your ministerial duties.

00;42;00;19 - 00;42;15;28
Anderson Clary
Yeah, but I always had a for God first family second, because God gave me the family and then everything else too. And it worked out.

00;42;18;00 - 00;42;38;02
Liz Kay
Just thinking back to your Providence College experience and you've threaded that needle so many times and showing how your PC experience impacted your path afterward. I'm curious if there are any other or experiences that really stand out in your mind as having helped shaped your career.

00;42;38;02 - 00;43;31;04
Anderson Clary
The influence of the priest and the lay teachers and administrators here in particular, not to discredit in any way coach Mulaney, but Dave Gavitt was, as far as basketball was concerned, a mentor for me, par excellence. And after basketball and I was working in the bank with Father Sicard and and my wife, he came to me and said, You don't want to go back in athletics.

00;43;31;04 - 00;44;07;12
Anderson Clary
That's not for you. I was in business and he connected me with all the professional athletes from the New England Patriots, the Boston Celtics and the Bruins, and I was an investment banker. And so we he introduced me to the president of the players Association who in Buckner at that time and we set up investment play and then Joey Hassett who's who played for Portland, I think he was drafted for it.

00;44;07;12 - 00;44;59;11
Anderson Clary
No, to Portland. To Portland. And he's from my from here. He went to the cell and he was in that office. So he had an in roles to sports, professional sports. And so me having rub elbows and played with these individuals. So that was how Dave then guided me after basketball. So in basketball he instilled in me the confidence that this little guy from Newport News, Virginia, playing in a segregated league with no press and no, you know, nothing really substantial to say in the bigger picture of high school recruiting.

00;45;00;03 - 00;45;14;02
Anderson Clary
And I came here and he gave me the confidence that I could compete at a high level at Providence, got So.

00;45;14;02 - 00;45;19;12
Liz Kay
Any clear, could you tell us, you know, a little bit about your motivation for all these years of service?

00;45;19;26 - 00;46;20;08
Anderson Clary
My faith. My faith and and my faith was tested like never before with my daughter was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and in need of a bone marrow transplant. This was in August 10th, 2018. I was teaching at Kenan Seminary. I dropped everything when we got the call and my life and my wife's life changed. I was in Hampton, I was retired, I went to Washington, D.C., and I moved into my daughter's apartment and she was able to come with me to made a big financial difference.

00;46;20;08 - 00;47;03;28
Anderson Clary
She was able to be an outpatient at Johns Hopkins, and I used to take her to her treatments seven days a week. She lived in Washington and drove to Baltimore every day, seven days a week from October, I'm sorry, from August, say, 21st. The 21st is the magic number to her bone marrow transplant in December, the 21st of the same year, 2018.

00;47;04;21 - 00;47;50;19
Anderson Clary
And my son was the bone marrow donor. And in February of 2019, she rang the bell at Johns Hopkins and they said, You are all Robert, meaning her whole DNA and everything was now her brother, that it never was an instance of rejection. Never. And to this day, right here where I'm talking to you, she's been cancer free.

00;47;50;19 - 00;48;28;14
Anderson Clary
And it was my not my prayers, but what God did with the prayer. And I asked to heal my daughter. The doctors lives can operate and they can medicate, they can manipulate, they can do therapy. All of their. But it's God who heals it. He answered my prayer. He answered my prayer. It's God that makes the medicine work.

00;48;30;02 - 00;49;04;26
Anderson Clary
And he answered my prayer. So when anybody asks me, How are you and your family, I see my daughter's four years cancer free. That's how our family's doing, because nothing else is important. Once you have a child or a father or mother, a loved one that is stricken with some maybe curable and maybe incurable disease or condition, and God works his miracles.

00;49;05;27 - 00;49;32;10
Anderson Clary
And that was I always had faith, but greater faith that I get from that. And if I may, faith is the substance of the Bible talking now. Faith is the substance of things hope for, and I hope for the best. And that evidence of things yet not seen. I've seen evidence.

00;49;33;14 - 00;49;42;19
Liz Kay
I mean, I feel like there's there's two blessings to celebrate there. I mean, the the remission for your daughter and the healing, but the gift of your your son to be able to.

00;49;43;08 - 00;49;44;06
Anderson Clary
Talk to me about it.

00;49;44;08 - 00;49;46;04
Liz Kay
To give of himself this way, I.

00;49;46;04 - 00;50;02;16
Anderson Clary
Mean, yes, yes. So don't tell me about faith. I mean, you have your faith and I don't try to tell anybody about. Well, you should believe my I don't tell them. I tell them I still I tell them know and declare.

00;50;02;16 - 00;50;06;01
Liz Kay
It's been so wonderful chatting with you today. Thank you so much for coming and sharing with us.

00;50;07;04 - 00;50;08;01
Anderson Clary
You world.

00;50;08;01 - 00;50;20;15
Liz Kay
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