By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide
Nicholas M. Perkins recently donated $1 million to his alma mater Fayetteville State University, inspired in part by two glaring sets of footprints.
The first trail of footsteps belonged to his grandmother, Laurene W. Perkins, who made a lasting impression as she walked from her kitchen stove to her humble table to serve her grandson warm soul food dishes each day. Following her example, Perkins launched his own Charlotte-based company at age 24, two years after he graduated from Fayetteville State in 2003. Perkins Management Services Co. operates food service outlets at HBCUs. The company offers other services to HBCUs including commercial cleaning, laundry services and dry cleaning.
“When I started my company I put in a bid for a small food services contract in Fayetteville,” Perkins said in a July 27, 2012 interview in The Grio, two years after he donated $100,000 to the business school at his alma mater. “Like most small businesses, getting capital to start a business was very challenging, especially for a minority business. I was not able to secure any loans or anything to start my company.”
“What I had to do was operate out of my savings and I worked [all jobs related to] my contract myself,” Perkins said. “I was the breakfast cook, I was the food delivery guy, I was the janitor, I was everything that it required, in order for me to be able to keep labor costs down and manage my business profitably. Then I took the profits I earned for that project and reinvested in the business and it grew that way.”
This is where that second set of footprints comes in. Perkins read a book about a little-known African-American millionaire that changed his life. Like Hansel and Gretel followed a trail of crumbs, Perkins followed the tips, ethics, and proven risk strategies that African-American millionaire A. G. Gaston left behind in Alabama as he moved from selling lunches at the mine where he worked to launching a bank.
When Gaston died in 1996 at age 103, his income from his Birmingham-based empire which included investments in banking, insurance, motels, funeral homes, and other businesses totaled at least $140 million, according to news reports.
“He went to work every day of his life until the day he died,” said Carol Jenkins his niece, who wrote her uncle’s biography titled, Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire. “A. G. Gaston started with next to nothing: His mother was a cook in the kitchen of a prominent white family; he never had more than a tenth-grade education. After the war he had taken his position in the mines as a means of survival – only to emerge utterly determined that his life was worth more than what the mines were offering.”
“I was 21 years old when Uncle Arthur died,” Jenkins wrote. “Walking around downtown Birmingham, it was impossible not to notice his name clinging in bold letters to the side of so many buildings, impossible not to recognize that it was not just the members of my family who deferred to him but people all over the city. I learned that he had built businesses, and that he owned a bank, that he had known Martin Luther King Jr., and had shaken President Kennedy’s hand more than once.
But Gaston also believed he was his brother’s keeper, like Perkins, who said the book about the African-American millionaire in Alabama changed his life. Supplying quality food-service management to the federal government, HBCUs, K-12 and commercial clients, Perkins’ latest donation comes on the heels of a 2012 donation of $100,000 to FSU’s School of Business and Economics. The money is being used to train young entrepreneurs. His company employs more than 400 employees, serves more than 20,000 meals per day, and his operation spans 10 states, according to the Perkins Management Services Co. website.
“It is critically important that individuals support historically Black institutions financially,” Perkins continued in the interview in The Grio. “While there are corporations and individuals with greater resources, I have made a personal commitment to support the education of underserved students that are seeking to advance.
“My planned gift demonstrates my faith in and commitment to Fayetteville State University and its mission,” Perkins said.
Although Perkins was not born in 1892 in a log cabin in Demopolis, Ala., like Gaston nor reared by grandparents who had been slaves. He did not serve in World War I, like Gaston. Nor did he survive the Great Depression, flourish, and provide critical support to the civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Obviously, he is methodical, like Gaston. He lives in the present.
“I can’t say enough about Mr. Perkins and his support for his alma mater,” Getchel L. Caldwell, vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement at FSU, said in a recent statement.
“His continued support of this university shows that he appreciates the education afforded him by FSU, and it shows that he wants to see the university prosper and continue to grow. Because of Mr. Perkins and his commitment, we are able to continue the momentum of the first phase of the campaign into the second phase. “
Fayetteville State has reached its fundraising goal of $9 million during its first phase because Perkins not only followed two large sets of footprints. He is also leaving a large set of footprints for others to follow.
But this is just one donation that is making news. For example, Koch Industries and the Charles Koch Foundation recently donated $25 million to the United Negro College Fund. The funds are earmarked for an $18.5 million grant that will fund 3,000 merit-based scholarships for undergrad and graduate students with demonstrated financial need. Another $6.5 million will support the 37-member UNCF. Some $4 million of this total will be used to provide financial relief to UNCF schools impacted by the Parent PLUS loan crisis.
Meanwhile South Carolina State University in Orangeburg recently received a $100,000 donation from Kenneth Ravenell a 1981 graduate, who earned a law degree at the Maryland School of Law in Baltimore. Ravenell is a senior partner at Murphy, Falcon & Murphy in Baltimore.
Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York, recently received a five-year, $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The funds will be used to increase the number of students from underrepresented minority groups who are preparing for Ph.D. programs in the biomedical and behavioral sciences.
Want to know how your HBCU ranks when it comes to giving back? U.S. News recently ranked the most charitable groups of grads. Schools like Claflin University, Spelman College, and Morehouse top the list.
The top 10 schools where grads give back are: 1) Claflin University -43 percent; 2)Spelman-37.3 percent; 3)Morehouse-29.3; 4)Tuskegee-23 percent; 5)Livingstone-21.4; 6)Central State University-19.8; 7)Fort Valley State-17.2; 8)Univ. of Arkansas, Pine Bluff-13.6; 9)Johnson C. Smith-13.5; 10)Tougaloo -12.9.
Source:
http://www.thenewjournalandguide.com/commu...
Posted By: How May I Help You NC
Friday, June 27th 2014 at 3:46PM
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