LeRoy Pennysaver & News

LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - NOVEMBER 11, 2018 Robert Turpin – LHS Alumna – Class of 1939 by Lynne Belluscio Dorothy Russell Rooney stopped by this past week with some newspaper clippings and her old 1939 Oatkan. As we thumbed through the year- book she shared some stories. Then she pointed out a photo of one of her classmates, Rob- ert Turpin. She handed me a printout of his obituary from the Lansing State Journal of August 28, 2015. “He was a remarkable student,” she said. “ I was valedictorian but he should have been selected. It probably was because he was African-American.” I read through his profile – baseball, basketball, track, football, or- chestra, boys glee club, Student Council Citizenship Medal, First prize speaking context, Larkin Speaking Contest, de- bate team, president of the ju- nior class, assembly commit- tee, chairman of the Block L” committee, vice president of the student council in his senior year, National Honor Society in junior and senior year, busi- ness manager of the O-at-kan. Robert Turpin was no ordinary student. Dorothy told me that he had come to LeRoy with his family when his father became minister of the Second Baptist Church on Myrtle Street. They lived in LeRoy about ten years and after graduation, the fam- ily moved to Flint, Michigan where his father was assigned to a new church. In the mean- time, Robert went on to Oberlin College to study pre-medicine and then on to dental school in Nashville, Tennesee. Robert was born on No- vember 17, 1921 in Birming- ham, Alabama in the parson- age of the 16th Street Baptist Church. (In 1963, four girls were killed in this church when the KKK bombed the build- ing.) After dental school, Rob- ert Turpin moved to Pontiac and opened his dental practice in 1947. He was one of several African American profession- als who took on community leadership roles in a city that was battling segregation as the migration of blacks from the South continued after World War II. In the 1950s, Turpin served in the US Army Dental Corps, and was assigned to Par- is, France. When he returned to the United States, he was elect- ed to the Pontiac School Board in 1965, serving during fright- ening times of violence due to court-ordered busing in 1971 to desegregate public schools in Pontiac. Amid threats against his family, police were sta- tioned in the house to moni- tor phone calls and transport Turpin’s daughters to school. He also was chairman of the Pontiac Economic Develop- ment Corp., the Michigan Chil- dren’s Aid Society and the Pon- tiac Urban League, and was a member of the Oakland County Dental Society. He was one of the four founders of Black Men Inc. of Greater Lansing, Turpin was also a Golden Heritage mem- ber of the NAACP. He had received service awards from the Pontiac United Way, the Oakland County NAACP, the Urban League and the Pontiac Heritage Society. He was active at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pontiac and at Trinity AME Church in Lansing. He retired from dentistry in 1985. He re- turned to LeRoy for his 50th high school reunion in 1989. In later years, Robert Turpin, lost his vision to glau- coma and he died onAugust 20, 2015 at the age of 93. He was survived by his wife Elizabeth and their children. His son, Dr. Bruce Turpin, maintains a den- tistry practice and his daughter, Bahni is an actress and literary commentator. I’m still trying to tract down his other daughters, Barbara and Beth. Memorials were established in his name to the Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry in Tennes- see and the Lansing Education Advancement Foundation. As I read through the 1939 yearbook, I could not help but notice the quotation next to Robert’s senior photograph: “ I believe in real knowledge ac- quired through an open mind unfettered by prejudice.” He was truly an Oatkan Knight.