March 27, 2000
Senior adult honorees include
man who learned to read at 98
___WACO--George Dawson, 102, was given the Summit Lifetime Achievement Award for Living during the Senior Adult Summit at the Waco Convention Center March 20.
___Dawson learned to read at 98, and at age 102 has co-authored a book, "Life is So Good."
___He was presented the award at a banquet attended by more than 700 senior adults andtheir leaders, sponsored by the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
GEORGE DAWSON signs copies of his book at the Senior Adult Summit.
___Three Horizon Awards, honoring senior adult leaders who have served faithfully, also were given during the summit.
___Honored this year were Harry Piland, retired education minister of several Texas churches, who is ill with brain cancer and was unable to attend; Len Sehested of Fort Worth, who has given many hours to various senior ministries; and Derrel Watkins, retired professor of social work at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.
___Dawson has been the subject of several newspaper articles in the Dallas area because of his accomplishments, said Mike Lundy, the CLC staffer who deals with aging issues. Lundy introduced Dawson, his son, George Dawson Jr., also of Dallas, and the man who taught him to read, retired Dallas Independent School District official Carl Henry.
___Dawson was born in Marshall in 1898. He began to help with farm chores at age 4, and when he was 12, he was sent to work for wages on a nearby farm so his brothers and sisters could attend school.
___He later moved to Dallas and reared his family while he tended boilers used in pasteurizing milk at Oak Farms Dairies.
___Dawson "helped" all seven of his children with their homework before he turned in. It never dawned on the children that he could not read.
___Lundy said Dawson decided to learn to read because he wanted to be able to read the Bible for himself.
___Dawson's son told the participants at Senior Adult Summit that his father is proof "no one can ever quit; you just have to keep on trying."
___Henry had retired from responsibilities of heading the music program for the Dallas schools when he was called in to substitute in an adult reading program.
___"The man who was teaching wanted to go to classes, so I agreed to take it on temporarily, and in walks this 98-year-old man wanting to read," Henry recalled.
___Because of that experience, Henry said, he still is teaching in the adult literacy program.
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