VB Dems

There is more to Mr. Andrew R. Jackson than most people know. In fact most people are not aware that his tremendous zeal to serve others, in the role of community activist, can only be compared to his devotion to his wife, family as well as his career as a former Navy Serviceman. His proud service to his Country as a Naval Radioman cultivated his gift of communication and promoted his endowment of loyalty.

His community activism is spurred by his hope that whatever community endeavor or cause he champions will serve to fill a need that would not otherwise be addressed. Andrew neither needs to be asked or congealed to step up to the plate to get involved. He considers what he does as a small part of the big picture in making his community and the City of Virginia Beach better. Whether it entails mentoring or being what some call a “life coach”; Andrew receives such great satisfaction in giving advice to young men before they get into trouble; before they make the unwise decision to drop out of school or get involved in things that will put them on the wrong path. He has been invited to speak to several youth groups and has spoken at several other related events as well.

Many of you may have watched his quest for a City Council seat during his campaign in 2008 as he was extremely committed as well as focused while vigorously campaigning his way around the city; crossing racial, ethnic and cultural lines with relative ease.

This ability to blend with people didn’t come easily and occasionally he will speak about his childhood journey of being a young boy who grew up without a father in a very tough public housing area of Cleveland, Ohio. He denotes himself as the ”kid that stuttered so badly that he could barely complete a sentence.” His story of his struggling mother that sent all of her four children out of the neighborhood to Parochial Schools and later to the best Catholic High School in the area speaks as to why he has an unwavering commitment and compassion for those who may not have been as fortunate as he.

He and his brother went to competing all boys High School’s (Cathedral Latin run by the Jesuit Order and his brother to Benedictine run by Franciscan Order). He often tells about his mandatory two years of Latin of which he remembers very little and smiles with a wink as he says he has fond memories of the “tough” Jesuit order and discipline. He often expresses that home and school are where he learned about the culture and viewpoint of others and where he learned how to share his views and articulate them for understanding. He likes to say that “he can go from the street to the boardroom and back again” with relative ease and not miss a beat.

Andrew’s lessons of the street; as he puts it’ were tough one’s and if you didn’t learn, you wouldn’t survive. In school, he says “there was only one other person that looked like him” out of about 600 other classmates; the lessons he learned in his school environment were nearly as tough as those he learned in the street. He learned a lot about and from the many other nationalities at school; Italian, Polish, German and Irish; they in turn also learned a great deal from and about him. For Andrew, he states that it was an interesting era in his life, “a cultural exchange” experience. He basically lived a culturally rich and diverse lifestyle and it was his great-grandmother that made sure he didn’t forget the importance of his own culturally rich heritage; (His two sisters also went to different (all girl’s) schools — Ursline Academy and Notre Dame Academy).

He laughs when he speaks about his ability to sing the songs of the Drifters with the guys on the block and then go in and study with Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake in the background. He learned it all, from rhythm & blues, jazz and classical; his older sister taught ballet and he learned to like the calming sound of ballet music to study by.

He left Cleveland joined the United States Navy and made the military a career. It wasn’t until his retirement from the Navy as a Naval Chief that he decided to make his home in Virginia Beach, VA. After which, he began a career in the field of Banking and Finance and in 1989 started his own business, writing business plans and assisting people with business start-ups.

Andrew spent 10 years living and working in the Middle East on a Navy/State Department project. He returned home to the finance industry as a corporate trainer, retiring from that career in 1998. Since then he has done a multitude of things in business and community service. He says he has too much energy to just sit down. While in the Navy, he was selected and underwent intense training at a DOD school and later conducted executive level race relations seminars. He uses much of what he learned in those seminars to transition social barrier issues.

Most of those who have known Andrew for quite some time will tell you he is “light and lively” “full of fun” but “very complex with a brain that is always engaged.” A man that can enjoy modern dance as well as ballet, understand and like opera and classical music, “chill out” with jazz and then “boogie” with the best of them at a dance. He is very fond of the old Negro spirituals and gospel music. (Secret: He used to sing with the Men’s choir …..”Solos” and all with a great voice)

Andrew has traveled the world, Far East to Middle East and places in between, Europe, Africa, the Islands of the Caribbean and South America both in the military and later as a civilian. He lived in Bermuda for two and a half years.

He has also attended schools all over the world including Ontario, Canada; Zug, Switzerland, University of Maryland (overseas campus) at the American Embassy School in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and locally at Tidewater Community College. Many receive his internet political news analysis paper which he puts out several times a month.

A “nice” guy with a zest for his community and a passion to see his city grow to be the best it can be and “He” without a doubt has the ability to make it happen.

Share on Facebook

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 8:52 pm and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.