Family and friends remember Harvey Benton Michael as a “quiet but strong and faithful presence” at his recent memorial service at First Congregational Church.
Michael, a longtime Atlanta resident, died April 14 at age 96, some 11 years after moving to live near his daughter, Mae Wanda Micheal-Jackson in Silver Spring, Md.
Fellow church member Roland Yates recalled him as dapper and dependable. His nephew Julius E. Coles said he had instilled in him a sense of thrift, and an interest in the world around him.
“He was someone all of us admired and loved,” Coles said. “He was interested in worldly issues. . . . He was maybe the first African American I knew who read the Wall Street Journal.”
His daughter said he reminded her that “life is always changing. . . . He imbued me with the desire to stand on mountain topes and enjoy adventures just as he did.”
Rev. Dwight Andrews, senior pastor of First Congregational Church, said Michael had always been supportive during his time as an active member of the church.
“He literally lived his life as a sermon,” Andrews said in his eulogy of Michael. “He was a gentleman who knew how to love and love more.”
Michael, known to friends as “Mike,” was the first born of Lonnie William and Lula Stigall Michael, on Dec. 23, 1914, in Jackson, Tenn., where both parents were teachers at Lane College, a historically black college chartered in 1884.
His family moved from Jackson to Arlington, Ala., and subsequently to Sheffield, Ala., where Michael was raised with his three
siblings. At the very young age of nine, and in the 4th grade, Michael realized he was an enterprising soul, as he took his father’s brown and white cow, Bessie (half Jersey and half Holstein), and some of the neighbor’s cows (for a fee) out to pasture about 1 ½ miles from home, early in the morning before going to school.
Michael loved music and took piano lessons from his mother, but he was unable to master the instrument. He learned, however, that he could sing, and at age 12, he became the youngest person in a local chorus where he sang tenor and tried to imitate the internationally renowned lyric tenor, Roland Hayes.
After high school, Michael attended Knoxville College but he was not successful there. He returned home and went to work for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) where he dug ditches. This experience helped him in thinking that he wanted to do more with his like. Thus, he applied to Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., where he majored in economics, and graduated with a B.A. degree in 1939. All through college, he used his typewriter to type students’ papers to make money and worked in the Dean’s office. He also brought little cakes and sold them for profit.
After graduation, Michael became a managing editor for the Carolina Times, and a publicity man for the Hercules News Service in Charlotte.
He was inducted into the U.S. Army on April 14, 1941 at Fort McClellan, Ala. While stationed at Fort Benning, he met his beloved wife, the late Adeline Gray Michael, an Army Service Club hostess on base, and they married on Nov. 29, 1942. Michael attained the rank of sergeant and received the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medall – WWII, and the American Theater Ribbon before receiving an honorable discharge on November 5, 1945.
Michael went on to earn his M.A. degree from the Atlanta University School of Social Work in 1947. He taught English at an Atlanta high school and later became the manager of various public housing projects and senior housing facilities under the Atlanta Housing Authority until he retired. After retirement, he worked as a tax preparer for H&R Block.
Michael was a longtime member of the American Veterans Committee (AVC), which challenged segregation policies and maintained a racially integrated chapter in Atlanta after World War, even prior the Civil Right era. He was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and was a co-founder and vice president of Empire Investments, an investment club. He also served on the board of the Metropolitan Atlanta Association for the Blind and was proudly served as deacon of the United Church of Christ, First Congregational Church of Atlanta, where he also was a tenor in the church choir.
Michael’s hobbies included photography, writing, making investments and reading newspapers. He was known for typing everything, including short notes, long papers, letters, charts of figures and messages. His signature attire for many years included a dapper hat, a bow tie, eyeshades and a smoking pipe. He loved riding his tractor lawn mover and he loved planting trees and shrubs, an interest he acquired while working for TVA. Perhaps a secret to his long life was his unrelenting performance of daily physical fitness exercises, keeping abreast of world events, and enjoying family gatherings.
In addition to his daughter, Michael is survived by his granddaughter, Erica Jackson; brother, Bruce T. Michael of Jamaica, N.Y.; two nieces; five nephews; several cousins; several great nephews and nieces; and great-great nephews and nieces.
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