Melvin Willingham Sr.

Melvin Willingham Sr

Melvin Earl Grady Willingham Sr., 58, of Baltimore, formerly of Cleveland, died August 23, 2000, at Jefferson regional Medical Center

He was born November 7, 1941, at Camden, a son of the late Asa Willingham and Beulah Mae Rogers.He was reared by his maternal grandmother, the late Edna Rogers Atkins.

He graduated from Lincoln High School at Camden in 1961.He enlisted in the Air Force where he served from 1961 to 1966.

He was employed with TRW manufacturing plant as machinist until 1973 when he enrolled as a freshman at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

In 1977, he graduated cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in political science and pursued a master's degree in public administration at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

While completing the graduate program he was selected to be a presidential management intern with the Social Security Administration.His training sites included offices at Fayetteville and Austin, Dallas, Arlington, Texas, and Denton, Texas.

He then was permanently placed with the Social Security Administration headquarters at Baltimore as a personnel management analyst where he worked until his death.

He was a member of the Social Security Administration chapter of Blacks In Government and was a member of Alpha Kappa Mu honor society.

He conducted employment improvement workshops for Social Security Administration as well as college preparatory seminars for Lansdowne High School at Baltimore.