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1. A professional musician as a younger man living in Chicago, this Kanawha County native left the road to pursue a walk with God. Now a part-time pastor delivering sermons across West Virginia churches, David previously served as chief ministry officer for a progressive Akron, Ohio, church with a membership of more than 6,000. 2. David reads everyone from Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X to Johnny Cochran and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. “The thing I’m most interested in is my collection of books dealing with the black experience.” 3. David’s first date with his wife, Joy, was on a day he played drums at Charleston Civic Center. “That’s one of my bands—Ebony and the Greek—in 1972,” he says of an old photograph on the wall in his home office. “We did a warmup for the Dennis Coffey guitar band. If you look closely, that’s me right there in the back.” He was about 18 years old at the time. 4. Music helps David unwind. In addition to a room full of instruments, his basement is also home to hundreds of vinyl records and many old cassette tapes. David still works on new tracks from time to time, and he once worked on an album with Charleston’s Bob Thompson. “It was a geriatric exercise album,” he laughs. “It was really pretty cool.” 5. “This is one of my favorite pictures of all time,” David says, pointing to a photo of his mother, father, two of his eight siblings and himself, hanging in his hallway. “I remember that picture like it was yesterday. It was probably 1960. Not that I’m that old,” he smiles. 6. The basement is also a haven for train enthusiasts. “What I’m modeling is southern West Virginia,” David says, adding that his grandkids aren’t quite as into trains as he was growing up. “They’re 5, 8, and 9. Here I am downstairs living out my childhood fantasies with this train, but I can’t get the grandkids to play with them.” 7. David often writes a column for The Charleston Gazette and has appeared as a political commentator on radio and TV. “I’ve probably written over 100 columns about diversity in West Virginia.” 8. Drums, keyboards, and vibraphone are just some of the music-makers in the basement. These vibes date back to 1959. 9. His book, Bitter or Better: The Adversity Principles, is available at amazon.com. Another book is in the works. 10. When David was in the fourth grade, his older brother used to bring books home and David would read them. Among the books that have stayed with him over the years are George Orwell’s 1984 and The Shadow That Scares Me by Dick Gregory.
10 morgantownmag.Com
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