| Will Reno, mayor of OMI, passes |
|
|
|
| by Trevor R. Hunnicutt | |
| Wednesday, 25 July 2007 | |
|
For people who haven’t lived or worked in San Francisco’s Oceanview-Merced-Ingleside (OMI) neighborhood, the name Will Reno probably doesn’t sound familiar. But for decades, the barber, entrepreneur and activist was an unavoidable presence on the streets of this working class community in the southwest corner of San Francisco. Seeing that presence would be as easy as going to his barbershop on Broad Street, replete with a hall in back that could be used for weddings and meetings of the Lions Club branch that Reno helped found two decades ago. The barbershop served as a gathering spot and a place for discussion. People who worked with him say his hallmark was helping youth. His trips, in which he took children to Santa Cruz or on Easter egg hunts, are familiar to many who have raised families in the OMI as are his endless overtures to even the most reticent youth, suggesting that they consider leading productive lives beyond the street. But in May, after 40 years of serving as the so-called “mayor of the OMI,” an appellative Reno is said to have encouraged, he died at the age of 70 from congestive heart failure. In addition to leaving his companion, Pearl Miller, and her children, three siblings, one aunt and several more distant relatives, Reno left one final question that many residents and community activists find difficult to answer: When a father, businessman, public servant and friend as omnipresent as Reno dies and there is no heir apparent, where do you find his replacement? “I wonder if those young people are going to come in and fill that void,” said Edna James, who worked with Reno as the president of the OMI Community Association. “We wanted to try to do something in his memory.” “I don’t see anybody – I was trying to rack my brain and I don’t see anybody taking his spot,” said Caesar Churchwell, a dentist who knew Reno for years and usually sat behind him at the church they both attended regularly, Paradise Baptist Church. “He was really committed.” Many active residents in the community expressed fear that the loss of an advocate and problem solver was dangerous for the community’s future. Myrna Lim, a community activist, wrote in a blog for the San Francisco Examiner that the community “lost our guide as we struggle to figure out how to help address the ever increasing crime in our neighborhood. Some are committed by the youth.” Community leaders feel that the Oceanview has problems such as gang activity that require creative solutions in the mold of those provided by Reno. “We need jobs and activities for youth,” said Al Harris, a community organizer and vice president of the group OMI Neighbors in Action. Gerardo Sandoval, the San Francisco supervisor who represents the neighborhood and gave Reno a commendation for his work with youth in 2003, described a time he was driving in the rain and saw drug dealers at work in front of Reno’s barbershop. “It gave me an appreciation for what he and the community went through every day.” Sandoval, who was never publicly supported by Reno, said that he became good friends with him anyway. He was once told that “if I wanted to have any sort of success in politics, I better get to know him.” Sandoval said that “he was always ahead of everyone else, including me.” Will Henry Reno was born on June 17, 1936, in Earlington, Ky. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1959 to 1966, when he came to San Francisco and settled in the OMI. He studied to become a barber and worked at a shop on Randolph before opening his own. He founded a Lions Club affiliated group with a service and ethics oriented mantra. At his funeral, which was standing room only, the speeches showed that his impact was clear. “The young girls say if it wasn’t for him, they wouldn’t have gone to school,” said Churchwell. “The young guys say if it wasn’t for him, they’d be in prison.” “As long as it was positive, Reno was very for it and pushed you to do it,” said Eli Horn, who grew up in the community in the 1980s and had his hair cut by Reno. “I think that he will be remembered as a champion of the community, [with] the empowerment of the community” as one of his top goals. People who knew Reno described his motivation as being genuine concern and charity, tempered by a balanced sense of humor and a clearly expressed opinion of how things should be done. “Reno had a giving personality: He loved the idea of helping others. If a kid or somebody needed a jacket or something [he would pay for it] out of pocket,” said Lovell Davis, who co-founded the Lions Club branch with Reno in the 1980s. “His legacy is that he was always there for the community. If anything was there that would benefit the Oceanview community, he was there.” While people see a vacuum of the sort of leadership that would replace Reno, harder still may be recreating and documenting his legacy. “You really never heard about it, but it was behind the scenes,” said James Calloway, who met Reno 30 years ago and is now a member of the Bayview Hunters Point branch of the Lions Club. “To me, he is an unsung hero. In retrospect, he never got his due.” “Reno can never be replaced because he opened that barbershop and opened it up to the community,” said Bill Gray, who lives in the OMI. “We need that barbershop.” Several suggestions have been made about how to preserve Reno’s memory and continue his legacy. At the very least, Reno’s Lions Club will continue their work. The group’s director, Connie Bridgewater, said, “We’re rebuilding. We’re still going to be a force in the community.” Trevor Hunnicutt, a journalism student at San Francisco State University, can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|