October 13, 2008
Another Bethune making a difference
By JOHN BOZZO
Staff Writer

DAYTONA BEACH -- Still lean after 28 years as a Marine, Hobson McLeod Bethune watched his charges hustle on the Cypress Street Recreation Center basketball court.

Police Athletic League championship banners from years past hung overhead.

Two players sprawled under the basket after a drive to the hoop.

"It's a tough game here," he said, before helping a limping player off the floor. "No fights, but it's a tough game."

Moments later, Bethune brought a bandage to another player.

"We need a corpsman here," quipped the 52-year-old man who joined the Marines for a two-year hitch before college and wound up making it a career.

A native of Daytona Beach and a 1974 Mainland High School graduate, Bethune was working with PAL in Jacksonville after retiring from the Marines in 2002 when a childhood friend recruited him to breathe new life in the ailing PAL program here.

"We've been friends since grade school," said Percy Williamson, Daytona Beach Leisure Services director. "I could have probably been able to tell you he was destined for a military career. He was always straightforward."

Williamson, a former banker in Jacksonville, had kept in touch with Bethune. The draw of coming home was strong for both men, who value their formative years on the playing fields and courts here.

Bethune is a grandson of Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of what is now Bethune-Cookman University, adviser to presidents and founder of the National Council of Negro Women.

She died nine months before he was born.

"We like to say we were born when our father was still mourning his mother," he said.

Like other men in the Bethune family, he took McLeod as a middle name in honor of the educator and civil rights leader.

Her heritage was alive and well when he grew up. The college was a powerful reminder. Yet, he didn't feel as welcome as he would have liked on campus, because his father and the school had parted ways.

"We knew who we were," he said. "We knew our family heritage. But it was not a plush life. There was no silver spoon."

His mother, Elizabeth, largely supported the family, six children including his twin brother Robert, on her earnings as a beautician.

"Because of our heritage, we embarked on making our own mark," Bethune said. "I think I did a lot to help the development of younger Marines."

In the Marines, Bethune worked in disbursement, combat logistics and as an instructor and recruiter. He was also a coordinator of drug education for disadvantaged youths. His rank on retirement was gunnery sergeant.

He married his high school sweetheart and, although now divorced, they have two grown sons, Hobson Jr., 33, and Rashad, 27.

"I think I got bit by the coaching bug as my two sons got interested in sports as they started high school," he said. "Teaching what I know became part of my fabric."

A Marine Corps bearing still shows in his conversations, which he punctuates with a single word, "check." And in his approach to mentoring youths.

"A bad Marine had a lack of good leadership," he said. "A bad kid has a lack of community leadership."

Bethune steps into his hometown PAL program at a time of need. With the closing of nearby Bonner Elementary School and busing woes, participation in the after-school program dropped from 120 last year to as few as 10.

Discussions with school officials are expected to bring improved bus service, which Bethune hopes to enhance by approaching local churches that have vans.

The Cypress Street Recreation Center was built in 1949 and has seen better days. Fixtures are old, but the site is beloved in the neighborhood. A crowd still shows up for basketball when the after-school program lets out.

City officials had talked about knocking the building down and putting up a new structure, but financial realities are now tending toward renovation of the existing structure.

Bethune said the building and PAL programs are needed as an outreach to disadvantaged youths. At $85 for the year, the after-school program is a real option for low-income families, he said.

"He's cool, a real caring person," Dennis Baker, 21, said of Bethune. Baker shows up every day to lift weights and play basketball. "He's doing something for our people."

Many of the youths come from single-parent homes, Bethune said. The men staffing the center, including Leisure Services employees, are their father figures, he said.

"He's like my God-daddy," said Dwawn Fountain, 16, and a 10th-grader at Halifax Academy, said of Bethune. "He helps keep me out of trouble. I don't know how to explain it, but he's trying to keep me out of trouble. He's saying I need to talk to him. Don't do anything wrong."

Local PAL president David Howard also grew up in the program that he's confident Bethune will revive.

"Now, I think there's a little more need than we had way back then," Howard said. "Bethune is working hard. It's going to be a first-class program. We've got a first-class person running it now."

john.bozzo@news-jrnl.com

Ellie