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The Glover Report: The Black Wall Street Awards: Dottie Hector is Among Honorees

Doretha "Dottie" Hector, Owner, Phillips Funeral Home

Nursing Professional turned Funeral Home Owner at Historic Phillip’s Funeral Home

By Doni Morton Glover, www.bmorenews.com

(BALTIMORE – March 13, 2012) – The Black Wall Street Awards, set for this Saturday, March 17^th from 6 to 9 pm at the Douglass-Myers Museum, will honor a dozen women who are the backbone of black business.

One of these honorees, Doretha “Dottie” Hector, CFSP CPC, is personally special because she helped raise me as a child. I have known her all my life, and she has always been 100%, unequivocally real all of the time.

To me, she exemplifies the black business professional in the 21^st century. Her son, Robert, and her daughter, Robin, are a part of an industry that also raised me: The funeral industry. They call us UKs, short for Undertakers’ Kids. You see, for the uninitiated, my father was a funeral director and mortician. Before he passed in ’03, he had proudly served as President of the club. To say the least, I was around it, or it was around me – all of my life.

Clearly, the funeral director and mortician culture – especially in Baltimore and Maryland - is unique. It’s that industry that we all end up seeing one way or the other. LOL. It is, however, a very sacred profession where the men and women I have come to know over the years represent some of the most loving and caring people in the world. Their’s is the task of providing the most sacred ceremony in life, and with that is supposed to come a certain sense of decency, dignity, pride, and honor. Lastly, the funeral industry in Baltimore formally goes back to 1904, the year of the Great Baltimore Fire. That means that the Funeral Directors and Morticians Association of Maryland is 108-years old.

The Locks, the March Family, the Dyetts, the Mortons, the Browns and the Browns: So many names come to mind.

All this to say: Dottie Hector carries forth this honorable tradition with grace and style every single day. The real beauty is that, until now, she resisted recognition from BMORENEWS.com. Why? She humble enough to know it is not about her, and that it is all about God. Before this last request, however, I told her I wasn’t taking “No” for an answer. Why? Because she has done so much for so long for so many that it is high time she allows others to bless her.

Based at the historic West Baltimore-based funeral home named after Arlington Phillips, the establishment has a tradition of serving the community – from families who can ill-afford to bury their loved ones to James Mosher Baseball, a longtime recipient of their generosity.

Every single time I’ve asked Ms. Dottie to help me with a community service project, she answered. She did not hesitate. And to me, that speaks volumes. She’s always doing something for others, and so, on Saturday, March 17^th, we will honor her. The mother of 2 is also grandmother of 5 and the great grandmother of 3.

All of Dottie’s adult life has been in the Ministry of Serving “Mankind” … with 15 years spent in the field of nursing. The rest has been in the funeral industry.

She began with a man who was like a Godfather to me, the late Samuel T. Redd, Sr. Ms. Hector worked for him while she was attending Catonsville Community College’s Mortuary Science Program. To my knowledge, this is the only mortuary science program of its kind in Maryland and offers an Associate’s of Arts degree.

The next stop for her would prove to become home: Arlington Phillips Funeral Home on the corner of Monroe and Westwood. Here, she went from apprentice to owner.

How beautiful!

Dottie Hector is a Certified Funeral Service Practitioner (Master’s Degree), a certified Pre-Need Counselor, and a Licensed Insurance Agent. If it’s good for the good of the funeral service industry, Ms. Dottie is a part of it.

Ms. Dottie is a proud member of several funeral service organizations, including the Funeral Directors and Morticians Association of Maryland, Inc. (she served as Secretary), the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, Inc. (Past District Governor), the Maryland State Funeral Directors Association (where she the distinction of being the 1^st person of color to serve all offices, thus serving as the organization’s 1^st black president), the National Funeral Directors Association (served as the Policy Board Rep. from the State of Maryland for 6 years), and Epsilon Nu Delta Alpha Beta Chapter Mortuary Fraternity (President for the past 15 years).

Dottie’s heart is The 100 Black Women in Funeral Service … an organization she and her best friend founded in 1993. They saw a need to unite and mentor black female morticians, honor the older morticians, and provide scholarships for students.

Further, in 2010, this group researched and honored the Black Funeral Homes that have served their communities for 100+ years. I can only imagine the struggles these owners must have endured from the beginning. FYI, there are 42 such funeral homes in the United States with the oldest one in this state being Lock’s Funeral Home. Former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke’s wife, Patricia, is a member of the Lock Family. Each funeral home owner received a befitting crystal tear drop statue, a personal letter from Pres. Barack Obama, and citations from their Governor and Mayor. The program journal of the affair, thanks to Rep. L. C. Hastings (Florida) is now in the Congressional Hall of Records.

Dottie Hector is also a member of a number of other organizations, including the National Council of Negro Women, the NAACP (life member), and the National business & Professional Womens Club.

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The Black Wall Street Awards

Saturday, March 17th - 6 to 9 pm

SPECIAL GUEST: Darrin Henson: Actor/Author (Played "Lem" on "Soul Food" TV Series)

EMCEE: Attorney J. Wyndal Gordon, Esq.
aka
"The Warrior Lawyer"
President, Monumental City Bar Association

KEYNOTE: Robert Wallace, Author; CEO, The Bith Group

Book Signings by Darrin Henson and Robert Wallace

Black Wall Street Presentations to Dr. Renee, Dottie Hector, Shawn Smith, Nikita Haysbert, Pam Reaves, Tara Pannell, Julie King, Erlene Wilson, Peggy Morris, Monique Smith, Marsha Jews, & Rosana Miles
@

The Frederick-Douglass Maritime Museum

1417 Thames Street, Fells Point
Baltimore, MD 21218
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