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The
New York Times* referred to him as the “sherpa for
the rich and powerful .... People curious
but wary about trekking to the unfamiliar terrain of Harlem
alone.”
That official recognition of Mr. Walker came about
when he was the number 2 man of the non-profit development
arm of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem – the
Abbyssinian Development Corporation, as it is known. Their big annual fund-raiser,
where they honor a member of the community, is a breakfast held every early
June. It had started out several years ago, a gathering of maybe a hundred,
in a tent set up in an abandoned lot across from the church.
By the dawning of the new century, Darren Walker
had come along and transformed it something enormous – 700 people – one of the Must Attends of
New York’s rich, prominent and powerful (read: political). In 2001, a
socially prominent billionaire businessman named Michael Bloomberg,
having decided to run for the office of Mayor of New York, made the trek to
the breakfast in Harlem as the first official event in his campaign.
Mr. Walker hails from the tiny town of Goose Creek, Texas where he was raised
by his mother who worked as a nurse to support him and his three sisters. Goose
Creek, which came with its own chapter of the KKK nevertheless provided the
young boy with, in the Times’ words, “the armor to guard
against the bitterness about racism.” That’s how he handles adversity.
That’s his god-given (like his mama) wisdom. He told the Times: "My
mama brought me up to never feel a sense of entitlement," he said, adding
that as a child he was imbued with "old-fashioned black churchwomen values."
He shares his life with SoHo gallery owner David Beitzel and
their dog Beulah (named after his mom). He is, in the words
of his friend Jonathan
Capehart, “a real Texan — grand in spirit and generosity
and desire and willingness to help people.”
A couple of years ago, Holly Peterson, a journalist and socialite
here in New York invited me to a cocktail party she and her husband Rick
Kimball were giving at their apartment along with Laura and
Will Zeckendorf and Michael and Tara Rockefeller “for
Darren Walker.” He was being feted for his new appointment as a director
of the Rockefeller Foundation. I didn’t know Darren Walker but Ms. Peterson
was so enthusiastic about how terrific he was and how everyone loved him and
how such an appointment was major in anyone’s life that I really should
come and meet him. And so I did.
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Michael
Rockefeller and Will Zeckendorf toast Darren Walker
on account of his new appointment as director of
the Rockefeller Foundation
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I
wrote the following in the Diary about that evening:
“From the moment I entered the Peterson/Kimball apartment, I knew I’d
come to a good place. The decibel level from the cocktail crowd was energizing
in itself. Like bees around a hive. Workabees.
Mr. Walker, it turns out, I’ve met before (and had forgotten — typical)
but only in passing. An ebullient personality; garrulous, gregarious, effervescent,
all those words. A natty dresser, and a very very popular fellow, just as Ms.
Peterson described. Fondness for Walker filled the room. I talked to two women, Rachel
Hovnanian and Tara Rockefeller who’ve known him for years. Rachel’s
known him since high school and went to the University of Texas with him.
Mr. Walker has been very successful in his young life. (He’s
now forty-three.) After UTexas he went to their law school. Then he came here
to New York, got into a law firm and then decided to go into the investment
banking business, where he was an “associate for capital markets,” which
means: trader. Evidently he made a pile of money (as those men and women often
do) and invested himself in the higher New York life. He got involved in numerous
philanthropies and cultural activities, including the National Low-Income Housing
Coalition, the Children’s Storefront of Harlem and the New York City
Ballet.
Somewhere along the line he decided he’d
had enough and put Wall Street aside to sign on
with the Abyssinian Development Corporation, a
community organization in the City which focuses
on affordable housing and commercial business development
in Harlem.
He managed a number of departments and projects including the building and
rehab of more than 1000 rental apartments, condos and brownstones in Harlem.
He also oversaw the agreement that led to the construction of Harlem’s
first full-service supermarket. He also negotiated the contract to build the
first public school constructed in Harlem in two decades. He’s one of
those guys who gets things done and makes a better world from it.
He appears unassuming about all his success, but instead lends his efforts
to people and “good works,” as Michael Rockefeller pointed out
in a little speech about Darren Walker and his new job. Michael also pointed
out that the Rockefeller Foundation, which was created by the first John D.
almost a century ago, is no longer related to the family (it is what is called
a “professional foundation”), and that now through his friend Darren,
the family would somehow be brought closer to the Foundation once again.
There were many present at this reception who devote some if not all of their
working hours to projects to improve the community. When you are personally
aware of such people, doubts and fears can begin to dissolve (or at least diminish)
in their optimism. They are smart and ambitious people. It is awe-inspiring.
One of the things that continually amazes me about New York life is the diversity;
layer upon layer. The crowd of friends and wellwishers at Darren Walker’s
party was a sea of fresh, handsome, goodlooking faces; prosperous and enthusiastic
individuals, thirty-, forty-somethings. This is the generation that is changing
the City now. They come from every corner of the social terra firma. They are
the real new society. I mean in the Mrs. Astor/historical sense. They are elite,
make no mistake. They are also thoroughly multi-ethnic and inter-racial. That
is the face of the future. Make no mistake about that also. But they are not
elitist in presentation or in their objectives. They are chockfull of leadership,
apparently unfettered by dogma, and very impressive. Darren Walker is one of
these men, at least among his peers, he is. And the c.v. to back it up. But
the proof was in his presence in those rooms high above Park Avenue. Everyone
was very glad to be there.”
Darren Walker is one of those fascinating individuals whose prominence both
exceeds and defies celebrity. He has myriad friends and acquaintances from
all walks of life – politics, fashion, media, arts and culture. He’s
so well-known by the cognoscenti that it’s tantamount, in such lofty
circles, to being famous, which he is not. Yet. From his perch as director
of the Working Communities Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, he is spreading
that grace and influence – brilliant optimism and good will – further
afield beyond New York.
* Lynda Richardson,
February 2001 |
Albemarle,
Rufus
Aston, Muffie Potter
Basso, Dennis
Benedict, Daniel
Capehart, Jonathan
Cominotto, Michael
Curry, Boykin
Dahl, Tessa
DeWoody, Beth Rudin
Duchin, Peter and Brooke
Duff, Patricia
Eaton, Phoebe
Fales-HIll, Susan
Fekkai, Frederic
THE FULL LIST
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