The Passing of A Hartford Legend: Walter "Doc" Hurley

I was in the final stages of locating photos and creating an outline on one of the most famous Montford Marines when something appeared across my feed in a social media account. It was a tribute drawing from Bob Englehart, a political cartoonist from the Hartford Courant. The illustration read "Doc Hurley." I immediately was touched because my father used to play cards with Coach Walter "Doc" Hurley. Just last year we drove down Hurley's former street and my father pointed out the Tudor house that overlooked Keney Park. I discussed Doc Hurley's passing with my father and he reiterated how his late older brother Jay used to play football as an undergrad against Hurley on an opposing HBCU team. Both men were extremely tall and a long lasting friendship occurred between two giants whose statures alone did not define them. My late Uncle Jay would see Doc Hurley when he came to visit us in Connecticut.

"I didn't know he was a Marine," I said. Dozens of news sources plus a book stated he served in the Pacific during the 1940s as a Marine. As this blog's loyal readers already know, that would automatically make him a Montford Point Marine, since Montford Point was where all African American Marines were trained at the Camp Lejeune facility prior to desegregation. Thus, with supporting documentation, Doc Hurley should receive a Medal of Honor posthumously.

Source: Hartford Courant

Walter "Doc" Hurley- 1922-2014

Walter "Doc" Hurley was an educator, school administer and basketball coach. He was born in Albany, Georgia and moved to Hartford, CT where he was a four sport star athlete. Hurley graduated from Weaver High School in 1941 and served in the Marines. He attended Virginia State University and spent his summers in Hartford as a supervisor in a parks and recreation program. Hurley was a towering, commanding man with the "intense stare" and booming voice. Some of his young men that Hurley coached even made it to the NBA; they later reflected in a 2006 article from the Hartford Courant on the influence that Doc Hurley had:

In those days you didn't call them mentor, but that's what he was. He was the largest person I had ever seen. He was larger than life to me, and in a way still is."

Hurley played Professional football in the 1940s with the All American Football Conference Brooklyn Dodgers. He was a winning high school track and football coach and a noted basketball official in Virginia. He also began his teaching career there. Despite Hurley's successful reputation, when there was a basketball coach vacancy at Hurley's alma mata, Weaver High School, Hurley was passed over. Hartford simply was not ready for a Black coach at the time. Even today, headlines are still made when an African American is made a collegiate or professional sports coach. Said Hurley, "it stung" and according to the article Hurley "never got over it." (Hartford Courant)

Doc Hurley in 1940
Image via wfsb.com

It was Doc Hurley that calmed some 500 Weaver High School students down on April 4, 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Doc Hurley wasn't a teacher at Weaver, but he was summoned from his physical education job at an elementary school to prevent frustrated students from protesting. Hurley arrived and gathered the football team, since he knew many of them as kids by name, along with leaders of street gangs to diffuse the potentially violent situation. His quick-thinking paid off as Weaver High School remained unscathed while Hartford's North End was ravaged by riots for months. He asked the question, "Where are you going to get educated if you burn down the school?" Now that's power. (Hartford Courant)

The educator went on to become an assistant principal at Weaver High School and set up the Doc Hurley Basketball Tournament in 1975. Over a half million dollars in college scholarships have been given out over the years with the criteria based on academics, an essay and financial need.

"There are hundreds of people from throughout the Hartford area whose lives were transformed because of the higher education opportunities that Doc Hurley brought to their lives over the past several decades," Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Monday. "He was one of the most passionate voices for Hartford and its residents, respected by all, and brought such positive energy to generations of residents. He truly is a Hartford legend and is proof that one person can make a lasting, positive impact." Hartford Courant

Unfortunately, great things can become temporarily tarnished. State officials allege that his daughter misused college funds for her own personal use. A new scholarship fund has been established through the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, called the Walter Doc Hurley Scholarship Fund for Greater Hartford. Flags were flown at half mast under the direction of Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra, and the girls and boys Weaver High School Baskeball teams are dedicating the rest of their season in Doc Hurley's honor. They will be wearing jerseys with Doc Hurley's name on them. (Hartford Courant)


 And how did Walter Doc Hurley get the moniker "Doc?" His father wanted him to grow up to become a doctor so that he could be successful. I think this Marine did remarkably well, don't you? Do you know any educators like him? Would it be awesome to Hurley's legacy if he is honored with a Congressional Award posthumously?


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Hartford Courant file photo.

Sources:
FoxCT.com
Hartford Courant
Hartford.org

See Also:
A Montford Point Marine and Tuskegee Airmen in One Immediate Family
Connecticut: The Land of Steady Habits


Notes:

* Gwen Hurley, the wife of Doc Hurley, preceded her husband in death in 2005. She taught at Mark Twain Elementary for many years and also had a lasting impact on young people and the Hartford community. My friend Pat, an administrator, would speak fondly of Mrs. Hurley and her sayings.

Connecticut, "The Land of Steady Habits"

 Before I share how Dad ended up a Montford Point Marine, I will give you more background on  Connecticut, "The Land of Steady Habits". Connecticut is a small state but an extremely productive state. Dutch navigator Adrien Block explored the Connecticut River in 1614. Then English settlers made the state a colony. The Charter Oak became a symbol of independence from England. The Connecticut Charter was written in 1687  but was revoked by English King James II. Joseph Wadsworth prevented Royal Governor Sir Edmund Andros from obtaining it by hiding it in the hollow of a Charter Oak tree. (Information derived from netstate.com)

Source: CT-State-tree-2-web
Charter Oak

CT is known for its manufacturing methods developed by inventors such as Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin. It is known for its production of helicopters; Sirkorsky, and jet aircraft engines; Pratt and Whitney. Some of my relatives from Florida came up north during summers or for an extended time for work after my dad settled in New England. One relocated from Florida permantly.

Source: www.aircraftrecognitionco.uk

Furthermore, CT is also is known for small firearms, the Colt .45 and Colt's factory is now designated as a historical building. Small firearms are no longer made here, but like many abandoned factories it is used for housing and office space. I lived in one of its gigantic lofts for awhile. The famous Colt dome can be seen from Interstate 91 today.

The first American Cigars were made in CT. Tobacco farms figured prominently in CT and it was a "rite of passage" to work at either Thrall or Brown Tobacco, since they hired young teenagers. I was a "leafer", meaning I would set up large leaves on the tables for the sewers to sew on a rack. The racks would be sent elsewhere. The tobacco bus would arrive at 4 a.m. to pick teenagers up. We would leave in the mornings with our lunches and helmets and return later tired and dirty from tobacco dust. My brother picked tobacco leaves outside in the hot sun with the rest of the males.

Oh, and a young, personable young man from Atlanta, GA picked tobacco in Connecticut during his summers from a Black College. He attended church here and the experience forever changed him. His name was Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., a major Civil Rights Leader and activist who used peaceful demonstrations and marches to protest the treatment of African Americans in the United States. Dr. Martin Luther King is the only African American to have a federal holiday in his honor, during the month of January. He also received the Nobel Peace Prize. It would be three years later (1984) that I would be at an Atlanta College myself, and I would see Dr. King's sister as a professor and hear his cadence in the voice of his daughter, Dr. Bernice King who was two years ahead of me in school and became a minister like her father. Tragically, Dr. King was assassinated  April 4, 1968 at the age of 42 while standing on a balcony in Memphis, TN.


                                                                          ***




Whenever I would mention to former students that I picked tobacco, they would collectively gasp. Smoking did not have the stigma in the early 1980s as it does now. Anti-smoking campaigns were not launched until much later. Despite cigarette warnings detailing the dangers of smoking cigarettes, back then so many people smoked. It was addictive and unfortunately health problems developed. Smoking was permitted everywhere and the dangers of secondhand smoke were just starting to circulate.

Source: tobacconet.au

                                                                       

Marines and other members of armed forces were routinely given cigarettes such as Lucky Strikes and Marlborough. My dad's cigarette brand was Pall Mall and he would smoke at least a pack a day. I remember filled ashtrays with cigarette butts all over the house. It was my job to empty the ashtrays and clean them. Dad tried real hard to quit smoking. One evening he vowed to quit smoking cigarettes and threw an entire pack in the fireplace. What allowed him to quit smoking for good? Acupuncture. His alternative medicine doctor recommended it and my skeptical dad gave it a try. Dad decided to test the effectiveness of the acupuncture by trying to smoke. He started coughing violently and tears streamed down his face. That was the last time he lit a cigarette, and that was over thirty years ago. The acupuncture saved him money for his costly cigarette habit and more importantly, his life.

The State of Connecticut formerly requested the countries of Puerto Rico and Jamaica for seasonal migrant tobacco workers during the 1940s and 1950s. Hartford has the second highest concentration of Puerto Ricans in the Northeast per 2010 US Census. Part of the large population of Puerto Ricans in Hartford is a result of this; Current mayor Pedro Segarra is of Puerto Rican descent. Moreover, Hartford also has the distinction of having the first African American female mayor of a major city, Carrie Saxon Perry (1987). Excuse me, the Honorable Carrie Saxon Perry as she graciously informed me, as I had included her character in a school play and had invited her for the performance.

Source:www.maps.com

Hartford has the third largest West Indian Population in the US after New York and Miami. Whenever I visited a Caribbean nation, I would always run into someone who had a relative from Hartford. The West Indians that I grew up with were very studious and hard-working. These children of immigrants used the strict British-Jamaican education from their country and dominated the honor rolls. Home ownership and additional property was highly valued, and if a student did not attend college they made sure they had a trade or two. The early nineties comedy show "In Living Color", depicted this best with a family that worked so many jobs and criticized people with only two jobs as being "lazy". The comic bit was a bit excessive, but yes, I had friends who worked their tails off like this.



Getting a job for my mom was a snap. I loved hearing her talk about the old days when she used to work at Hartford Fire, now known as The Hartford, or Connecticut General (CIGNA). She regaled us often with pleasant tales of the outspoken "The Wig Wearin' Woman". It was decades later when I learned the actual name of the "WWW"! She would begin with, "And the Wig Wearin' Women said...." Mom's last and major job was at the Department of Motor Vehicles. She would always state it without abbreviating it, never shortening it to DMV. ( Dad did something similar with AAA, sounding out every letter; it was never called Triple A.) She was known as a key-puncher. As an eight year old little girl, I had no idea what that was. What did that mean, she punched keys at work all day?

Source: blogs.dctc.edu

In the older days of computers, cards were used to read information and data. Computer operators fed cards into machines to punch holes into them. The punched holes represented computer language codes. Key punching machines were used before data entry terminals were introduced. Later, until mom retired, her job title became data entry operator. As an aside, computer bugs, were named after the actual computer bugs that became trapped in the large computers. Early computers were very large and occupied entire rooms. The computer operators would be cloaked in special gear because the machine was very temperamental.

My high school job besides working at McDonald's Playland as a birthday party hostess, was a summer internship Aetna Life and Casualty. Each summer, the various Insurance companies would recruit at Black Colleges in the south, and house the interns in Hartford. These interns were bored out of their minds and would ask me, "How do you stand it being from there?" I would acknowledged their collective pain but Hartford/Windsor was my home.

Hartford was once known as The Insurance Capital of The World and EVERYBODY knew someone that worked at an insurance company. Despite being a conservative type of industry, it gave Downtown Hartford " bustle", with men in tailored business suits and power ties and later women in business suits and heels (sneakers on lunch hour or for the commute). I also was employed at Traveler's Insurance Company, answering phone calls for auto and property claims. If it was a serious, major claim or accident, it was my job to contact an insurance adjuster to get to the scene immediately. I always had a problem contacting adjusters in New York. They seemed very bothered and would  ask, "What do you want me to do about it?", or "I am in the middle of something". I loved hearing their expressive, thick New Yawk  accents, knowing that they would end up arriving at the scene because that was their job. The logo for The Traveler's, the Red Umbrella, was everywhere. During rainy days, huge official Traveler's Red Umbrellas dotted Main Street and it was so uniquely Hartford.

 Source: affordableamericaninsurance.com

Hence, the small, conservative city of Hartford was the place to be if you wanted employment. Additionally,  you could gather skills, obtain a college education, intern at the various insurance company headquarters in high school or college. Still, prospective job seekers could work at Electric Boat in Groton where they built submarines, Stanley Tools in New Britain or any of the various factories that existed in the state. People could quit work one day and have another job shortly thereafter. Finally, the southernmost part of the state is a suburb of New York City. Connecticut is a state that ranks among the top in  highest per capita income. This is where Clifford Primus spent the majority of his life. Connecticut was also the place where he received notification of his Congressional Medal of Honor as a Montford Point Marine, one winter day in February, 2012.

Now, let's travel back to the 1940s and away from civilian life to military life.

Dad's Arrival in Connecticut

As soon as my father arrived in Connecticut, his first objective was to find somewhere to stay. He had crossed the Mason-Dixie Line, the line that signified that he was no longer in the South. It was 1941. He did not have to sit in the rear of the bus, which was required below the Mason-Dixie Line. Can you imagine how thrilling that must be, to be finally free from racial segregation?

Source: Greyhound

The sense of independence and a new mission was overwhelming. Dad and his friend Columbus searched for a room to stay for a night before they could seek permanent lodging. They walked the streets of Downtown Hartford, where a Black doorman at a hotel surreptitiously told them, "Hey, these places are for whites only, you need to go somewhere else." The Negro doormen pointed them in the direction of the small colored community section in Hartford. So much for the end of segregation.

Source: Vintagetechobessions.blogspot.com

My Dad stated that upon disembarking the bus that they were people seeking factory workers. Hartford had Royal and Underwood Typewriter factories, plus other major manufacturing plants. Dad was so excited about getting a job at Hartford Machine Screw Company (Now Stanadyne, Inc.) that he worked as many hours as he could. He sent money back home to his mother, Lily Primus, whom as you will recall was a cook.

Clifford made so much money that his mother chided, "Now, son, I don't know what you are doing up there but I raised you to be a respectable man!" Grandma thought my father was doing something illegal! She had never seen that much money before and my father quickly surpassed the earnings of both of his parents. Dad earned 57 cents and hour and his father, a landscaper for a wealthy man as I mentioned ealier, earned 12 dollars a week. For the rest of my Grandmother's life, my father sent money to his mother.

Source: Wallacetustin.com

Hartford Machine was  a company that was considered a defense plant. The factory was located in Windsor, CT, Connecticuts's first town. Windsor was established by English settlers from the Plymouth Colony in 1633.  It  is considered a suburb of Hartford, CT. Of course, Windsor is named after a town in England and Hartford is derived from the English town named "Hertford". In any event, after a brief stint in Hartford, Windsor became my parent's permanent hometown for six decades.


Dad also did maintenance work for both Windsor Federal Savings and the Windsor House. "When did you have time to sleep dad?", I inquired. "Sleep?! Didn't have time for it." This was in addition to weekly family trips to New York and any other organizations he belonged to. With his younger brother some years later, my father had a trucking company, called the Clifford H. Primus Company. The H stands for Hamilton, his adopted middle name. Dad even got his real estate license in order to sell houses and property.

Source:  Typewriter Museum

In 1941 The United States entered World War II and defense plants were extremely busy. Strong men and later women, were needed to run factories efficiently and to keep up with orders. Dad was working long hours and saving his money. For all intents and purposes, he was exempt for serving in the military. So how did Clifford Primus end up being a Montford Point Marine?

Comic Relief and R&R (Rest and Recreation)

                                                                                           Source: AP

Did you ever notice that people that have had to go through difficult times end up with the best sense of humor? In reading about famous actors and comedians, I'm always amazed about their childhoods. Great comics such as Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, Mo'Nique, Steve Harvey, Eddie Murphy, Redd Fox, the list goes on, were able to find relief and refuge through comedy. Comics are able to capture a specific moment and retell it in a way that is captivating to their audiences. The receptive audience in turn, identifies with the funny material and laughs, which releases endorphins, a feel good chemical that your body releases when you laugh or exercise.

Many of the comics I mentioned were able to tap into the pain of oppression or poverty and persevere. For Blacks during my father's time, (segregation) folks would have get togethers, reunions, parties, sporting events, social clubs and worship services, which  provided a safe harbor against discrimination. Community ties were sacred and everybody knew whose child you were.

 You didn't dare act a fool in school because you would get the paddle AND even more trouble when you got home. Corporal punishment for misbehavior in school was usually done by the principal. Most of my friends that I grew up with whose parents were from the south and working class used this method of discipline. Children had to go and retrieve the belt or "switch" from the tree, which seemed like the longest march in history. Most comics of color usually have a routine where they describe being disciplined back in the day. Today, children receive time outs and loss of privileges, such as loss of cell phones, or no television. A child with any visible markings on their skin by law in many states are required to be reported to the protective services and authorities.

My parents worked very hard during the week, and every weekend my family would make the long, two hour drive from Hartford, CT to the World Famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, USA. They saw comics and great singing acts such as James Brown, The Supremes, Jackson 5, Etta James, Stevie Wonder.... a plethora   of jazz and r&b greats and had a wonderful time. (I was an infant so I don't recall these excursions) My parents also entertained people at home and played card games such as Bid Whist, and Spades.

                                                                            Jazz Great, Miles Davis

                                                                              Source: Havenshop.ca

 When I moved into my very first apartment, a loft with exposed brick,  Dad who by then was elderly, remarked, "Hey, this reminds me of Greenwich Village where I saw Miles Davis perform."  I immediately pictured Miles Davis, the cool jazz player, who was known to turn his back to the crowd, performing. Later on, when I directed plays, students would inadvertently turn their backs to their audience and I would shout out, "Miles Davis!" They would laugh because they remembered me describing his unconventional performance style. Miles Davis, the style icon, played the trumpet for fifty years. It was hard to select just one of his many black and white photos, I might add.

I didn't really joke around with my dad until my late teens. As I said before, strict, old school dad. "Dad, you so old that when you were young you had to start your car by turning a large handle outside!" I was being obnoxious and "grown". "Hey, you're right, my father had a Model T Ford and that's how we started the car." Oops. Technology has certainly come along way with remote starters and keyless entry. Anyways....

Never underestimate the power of comic relief, or entertainment. Soldiers require R&R (Rest and recreation) because it replenishes them. Entertainers also perform on bases for troops. For the Montford Point Marines, they had an extended R&R before deployment (I'll explain THAT in the future.) It could be the frightened mother and child in a homeless shelter. A frazzled management guy in the suburbs. An anxious child in school who is preparing for a state standardized test. If you are a breathing, living, human being, we all need comic relief, recreation and entertainment.

                                                                            Source: USO