For this Detroit 'Lion' and father, winning is measured through service to others

On June 10, inside the Wayne County Community College District’s (WCCCD) downtown Detroit campus atrium — a bright space where students often come to unwind — 80-year-old Ronald Coleman had important work to do.

While family means “everything” to Coleman, for at least three hours last Saturday morning, Coleman’s devotion to his three children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren took a momentary back seat to his other love, service. And his assistance was needed to help pack 25,000 meals for other families in need.

His assignment was an example of the noble, ongoing community service Coleman has been engaged in during the past four decades as a member of the Detroit Renaissance Lions Club, a part of Lions Clubs International.

“Our motto is: ‘We Serve!’ " said Coleman, who was joined on that day by fellow Lions Club members representing District 11-A1 (covering Wayne and Monroe counties), along with students and volunteers from other service organizations that came together to support the nonprofit Kids Coalition Against Hunger. “When you see Lions, you see service. You are looking at men and women from all segments of the community, representing various educational and income levels, who have decided that they are going to give their time, talents and treasure to a cause that is providing a service to our community.”

The smile that Coleman wore on his face from the moment he arrived at WCCCD at around 8:30 a.m., along with the pep in his step, seemed to indicate that not only was Coleman committed to the cause, but that he also was most comfortable with where the activity was taking place. In fact, Coleman says he has felt a sense of comfort and belonging throughout his travels in Detroit from the time he arrived in a “booming” Motor City in 1950 as a 7-year-old from St. Louis and immediately made friends with the other children living in an apartment building at Adelaide and John R. Coleman’s journey through Detroit’s public schools would take him to Marr Elementary; McMichael Junior High, and, as Coleman said gleefully on June 10, the “Big N.O.,” Northwestern High School. By the time Coleman reached Northwestern, his family was living at Ferry Park and Lawton, which he says made life even better.

“The Northwestern playground was my big backyard,” recalled Coleman, whose mother insisted that he take summer school classes, which enabled him to graduate high school at the age of 16 in 1959 with aspirations of becoming a pharmacist. “Right outside of Northwestern, we had baseball, basketball and even ice hockey — we skated from November until the ice melted in the spring. There also was a couple that owned a building nearby where you could rent ice skates and get hot chocolate; it was just a great place to be. And I was able to make a lot of friendships because Northwestern brought so many people together, from my area to 14th, from 14th over to West Grand Boulevard and from McGraw to almost before Davidson.”

Coleman says Detroit also made it possible for him to come in contact with men that profoundly shaped his life, including his stepfather Robert Walker, who operated the old Fairbairn Hotel (250 E. Columbia, just east of John R) before the building was converted into what used to be the Columbia Medical Hospital and Nursing Home, where Walker was an administrator. While Coleman was enrolled in Wayne State University’s pre-pharmacy program, Walker advised Coleman to go to mortuary school at Wayne State as well. Following his stepfather’s spoken directions, and the example of Walker’s industrious life, after graduating from mortuary school in 1963, Coleman settled into a routine where he was attending pharmacy school during the day and working at Joseph B. Thompson’s Funeral Home, at 7643 Dexter, in the evening. By the time Coleman completed all of his studies and board examinations, he was a licensed pharmacist and mortician.

“In the 10th grade, I decided I wanted to help people. And as a pharmacist, people depend on you for their medicine,” Coleman said, while also expressing immense gratitude for the friendship, mentorship and inspiration given to him by the late Percy R. McClain Sr., who was the first Black director of pharmacy at Children’s Hospital of Michigan before becoming director of the Detroit Health Department. “And as a mortician, people depend on you to take care of their loved ones. So, for me, it’s always been about helping people in some way.”

Walker provided an additional way for Coleman to be “helpful” to his community when Walker sponsored Coleman for membership into the Detroit Renaissance Lions Club in 1979. While Coleman was honored to be a part of an international organization committed to service, he confessed that family and professional obligations, which, for a time, included owning his own funeral home, prevented him from initially being as active as he wanted to be with the Lions. Coleman says it was not until the mid-1980s, following the death of Walker, that he was able to search his soul and make a full commitment to the Lions Club.

As a member of the Detroit Renaissance Lions Club, Coleman explained that he is a part of a historic group which answered a call for more Black Lions Club members when the Club was chartered in 1973 by the late William "Larry" Young, a certified microbiologist who retired from the city of Detroit as director of the Bureau of Food Sanitation. Young also was a past director of the International Association of Lions Clubs.

“We were the first predominantly Black (Lions) club in Michigan and one of the first in the whole country,” said Coleman, whose Detroit Renaissance Lions Club celebrated its 50th anniversary during a May 21 ceremony at Fellowship Chapel church. “In 1973, 69 men were brought together and they all were prominent men in our city. They thought we would be gone in a year or so, but 50 years later we’re still here and kicking and we have sponsored and organized 11 different clubs.”

Coleman was coy about identifying the people who felt the Detroit Renaissance Lions Club wouldn't last. Instead, with a smile, the 2022-23 recipient of the S.A. Dodge Distinguished Service Award spoke about the things Lions do to help others, including the June 10 event at WCCCD. That morning, volunteers stood at tables and placed a variety of nutritious ingredients into packets that, in the end, would provide the makings of a complete hot meal that could feed six adults or 12 children with the help of six cups of boiling water.

“It’s not meat and potatoes; it’s not chicken or hamburger; it’s a nutritional meal in a dehydrated fashion with no frying or baking required, just boiling water,” Coleman said of the meals that were targeted to feed people across Wayne and Monroe counties.

The Lions’ help with the effort certainly was a welcome sight to Michael Burwell, executive director of the Kids Coalition Against Hunger.

“The Lions Club District 11-A1 has been doing service projects with different service groups for years,” said the 58-year-old Burwell, who leads a humanitarian, food-relief organization that was brought to Michigan by his father, the late Dr. Donald Burwell. “For District Governor Matt Collins, this has probably been his pet project for the past 10 years. And Ron Coleman has a big heart. When I met him last year, he was on me for almost a month trying to get me to join his Lions Club. I can’t spread myself that thin, at least now, until I semi-retire from this. But one of these days, when I grow up, I want to be just like Ron.”

Not far from where Michael Burwell was speaking, First Vice District Governor-Elect La Wonna Lofton-Coleman sat at a table welcoming and registering volunteers representing Lions Club District 11-A1 and other community members that came to help out with the meal packing. It was not clear if she was aware that her husband, the same Ron Coleman who proudly sponsored the Detroit Renaissance Lions Clubs’ first female member in 1988 (Velestia Revels), was looking forward to a guys-only fishing getaway with one of his grandsons during the Father’s Day weekend. But when given a chance to talk about the man who took her to a Lions banquet on their first date, Lofton-Coleman made it known that the proud son of Willie Mae "Billie" Walker and Ray Coleman deserves to enjoy another one of his passions this weekend.

“He’s a family man; Ron loves his family, and his family loves him,” said Lofton-Coleman, who looks forward to serving the Lions Club and her community in 2024 as a district governor. “And one of things that I have always admired about my husband is that he is a good guy. If anyone calls him about anything, he always tries to figure it out and make it happen.”

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and lifelong lover of Detroit culture in all of its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at: stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/.

A 50-year commitment to service

What: Detroit Renaissance Lions Club, part of Lions Clubs International

History:  Chartered in 1973 by the late William "Larry" Young, a certified microbiologist who retired from the city of Detroit as director of the Bureau of Food Sanitation, the Detroit Renaissance Lions Club answered a call for more Black Lions Club members by becoming the first Lions Club in Michigan with a predominantly Black membership and one of the first in the nation. While serving the community in a variety of ways, the Detroit Renaissance Lions Club has sponsored and organized 11 different Clubs. Programs and initiatives supported by the Detroit Renaissance Lions Club include Leader Dog School for the Blind; Penrickton Center For Blind Children; Lions Visually Impaired Youth Camp; Greater Detroit Agency for the Blind & Visually Impaired; Eye Learn and more.

Upcoming Lions Club District 11-A1 Event: Communication Conference 2023; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, June 24, Wayne County Community College District Northwest Campus, Denise Wellons-Glover Welcome Center, 8200 West Outer Drive, Detroit, 48219. Available Resources and Opportunities: An introduction to American Sign Language (ASL) and braille; service vendors that support deaf and hard of hearing individuals, as well as blind and visually impaired. The event is free to the public. For more information, email it@metrodetroitlions.org or roncbluegill@gmail.com.     

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: A Detroit mortician found a way to help lives through the Lions Club