abbey, you were truly a blessing to milton as milton was to you, and as he was to so many of us, and that is what i will remember most. [applause] >> now, we get to meet novela smith, milton's former campaign manager and friend. >> i would like to thank abbey for asking me to speak today. i'm humbled abbey. thank you very much. most of you don't know me, so i'm going to keep this pretty brief. for those that don't know i was his campaign manager in 2004. he wanted to be board president -- excuse me, that was beautiful because he wanted to refocus the college board. i was really surprised when milton asked me to run his campaign. i didn't know him very well. since i only ran campaigns for people i knew, and for people who are interested in education and children, i was sort of surprised to find him on my door step. excuse me. so i didn't know enough about him to really say "yes" so i decided to ask around about him. l you can imagine the surprise i heard from people. they loved him. he was beloved by everyone that i respected in education and politics, so i decided to call him and meet

go that deeply into that, so i will focus on three stages of the life of milton marks as i knew him. milton was my student. milton was my colleague and milton was definitely my friend. at presidio junior high school at the era before they became middle schools he was a student in my english class. even then the complexity of his personality could be seen within the child there was reflective and mature little man. adolescence can be sortd and graded in the classrooms by their sense of humor. the immature ones are still laughing at the jokes from thid grade. why did tiger look in the toilet? he was trying to find poo. >> >> i have 12th graders that still laugh at that assumer but even as a 12 year old milton had developed a taste for rye and mature humor and sophisticated humor and he was one of the few when we read the "romeo and juliet" and really got it was that was so wonderful in the humor there, and there was a lot of humor, and it was all very dirty, and that was the one thing that got my students to really love romer and juliet" and the parents thought it was good and my students understand there were magn

milton didn't see them as separate. okay. now i'm going to talk a little bit -- i know you have heard of his work on the college board but i'm going to talk more about it. when milton first ran from the point of view of little bit of political wife basically. when milton first ran for election it was the summer and fall of 2000 and we weren't married yet although we did get engaged during the campaign and a whole another story i won't be telling me. i learned a lot from the campaign. for one thing it gave me a glimpse into the childhood and the mother was involved and i think the campaign was old style and very effective. extensive pamphletting, bingo nights and a specialty of hers and sunday church services and reaching out to everyone at every opportunity, gog any and all events no matter how not related to the election or small. we see the same people in many places and at the college board and sometimes the candidates would out number the citizens coming to attend the event and in fact that wasn't unusual at all. many of you here know this world but i did not. some made me smile, and some things inner vaiting and later milton turned this into a lifelong variety of running jokes. one is for example if he was running late and a pta meeting or five y

milton. i would like to return to the silence that we shared together during his funeral, a bitter time, and yet there was a sweetness to its silence just as milton in his illness was silent. there was a sweetness to his silence. just as in health milton had silence, and there was a kindness, and integrity, and there was a response in that quiet and take a moment to realize how much we much that silence of an ear that truly heard and understood, a man who was committed to principles of justice and kindness and peace as our mayor just described. i could encapsulate owl of the somes in his one name. to be happy that there maybe blessing within this world; that there be leadership and truly royalty within the family and city. the warm silence you felt in his presence is sorely miss. the warmth and kindness i reflect upon each moment they think of milton is treasured. we need more moments of silence like this. his memory is a blessing and is a part of each of us. when we are present , when we are aware, when we are kind without agenda. these are the words of milton. this means to find contentent in our place and every breath is an opportunity for us to praise this world, to praise our lives. every breath has that chance, and until milton'

milton friedman. can optimist and someone my. a much more than optimistic believer in our country. >> is there a contemporary milton friedman or liberal? >> well, that's a good question. certainly peter puts himself out as a modern-day austrian. he is probably one of the more popular among but he is a finance guy, not really an academic. from the chicago school, of course, there would be gary becker, but he's getting up there in age. he must be 80 years of age. as far as young people that are coming out of some george mason university which is a hotbed of austrian economics and public choice economics. i'm not sure there is anyone really of that stature who is writing columns for the new york times and so forth. thomas told rights, would he is in his 80's. so it's hard to say. my book is one of the more popular textbooks now. so i teach and so forth. i have been on the tv shows. maybe i'm playing a little bit of greuel. friedman always said that he stood on the shoulders of giants . isaac newton. and i feel the same way. i've benefited so much for all of these great economists who've come before me. >> you said you teach. where are you currently teaching? >> mercy college, teaching a program at sing sin

milton. this extraordinary man is a friend and he is an inspiration to me. to borrow from the testimonial sermon of his, reverend milton, as a very small child, was left with his brother and sister in a run down california motel to die. the san diego county welfare department found them and placed them in a horrific orphannage called the oak crest or fannage where -- orphannage where abuse of all kinds were inflicted upon them. many of the children in such terrible conditions committed suicide. which included his brother and sister. after the horrors of this orphannage, he was placed in 13 different foster homes where he suffered more unfathomable abuse and inhuman treatment. finally as jerome says, god heard the cry of the lam -- lamb, and he was placed in his 14th home of florence johnson brown, she could not read or write, but she was a good woman with a big heart and a stronger will. she took jerome and she said she could not imagine all the abuse he had been through. it just sounded too unbelievable. but she looked him in the eye and said, don't let your abuse be your excuse. she said someday you could be a great juvenile judge or case worker, something special. but there was a lot of rebellion and anger in the young man. he hated lots of people and things, and especially god. ms. brown would not heed jerome's fleas to leave -- pleas to leave him alone. she kept praying for him every single day by name. she said she knew there was good in him but prayed that god would not let him end up in jail or prison because she knew god could do something very special with him. he tried the praying thing himself but he was cynical. he wanted to go to college, he wanted to be a coach, but he knew no one who had money. but then he found out he could run really fast and play football really well. though his teacher told him he was too black and too stupid to ever amount to anything, he proved her wrong when just 4 1/2 years later he taught in a classroom right next to hers. as reverend milton says, god made him from foster care to people care. this angry black abused hopeless shell of a downtrodden young boy had god-given potential. this is what sadie brown saw in him. before she died she told jerome, all you can do for me is if you can do for a group of children what i have done for you, then my living will not have been in vain. she said, i don't have a million dollars, but i hope i made a million dollar difference. when she died, she had raised 44 children, giving hope to each one. jerome says she led him to jesus and jesus opened his heart. he providentially met and married charlie and together they have nine children. six of them were adopted through the foster care program. in tyler, texas, is where two heisman trophy winners grew up, but it's also the mission field of reverend jerome milton. and his wife, charlene. that's where they invested their lives. he's the senior pastor of the greater new pleasant hill baptist church in tyler, been there for 25 years. he esta