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Submitted by Markiesha Lawson, Centralized Eligibility Specialist, Washington State Department of Health  Here are a just few pictures of him with several leaders in America. Isiah Turner was born to succeed. His life’s accomplishments are impressive and can be described as what we now know as “black excellence.” Simply put, Isiah was a change maker, a leader, and distinguished gentleman.
The beginning of Isiah’s road to excellence was made evident at the tender age of 10. At this age, he was promoted from the 4th to the 6th grade. This two-year jump allowed him to graduate high school at the tender age of 16. Identifying him as the youngest person in the Class of 1962. He earned a B.S. in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College (with the help of Dr. Maxine Mims). One of Isiah’s first jobs was working for a non-profit organization where he was assigned a project with a caseload of 56 parolees from the notorious San Quentin Prison in California. He was responsible for finding jobs and housing for the parolees. This would have been a substantial responsibly for any person, and Isiah was able to do this at just 22 years old. Isiah moved to Washington State and began work with SOIC, another non-profit. During his tenure at SOIC, he collaborated with IBM to develop a data processing program which employed 200 African American men with companies such as: Boeing Aircraft, Lockhead Martin, Shipbuilders and AT&T. Isiah also developed a maritime program for minority men/women to become sea persons, engineers, and cooks. The Navy donated a 62-foot boat which was used as a classroom. This was the only program of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. Isiah was appointed to the Washington State Governor’s Cabinet and served as Commissioner of the Washington State Employment Security (unemployment) Department. In this role, he oversaw a state-wide agency of 2700 employees with a budget of $150 million. Isiah was the first person in this type of position to advocate for blacks and (all) women to have any/many positions within the state at that time. He was also responsible for the major increase in numbers for hiring those minority groups within the state. A few years later, he was elected by fellow commissioners to serve as President of the interstate conference of Employment Security Administrators located in Washington D.C. In this role, he worked to obtain federal funding and resources from the United States Congress and U.S. Department of Labor for all 50 states and 4 territories. Isiah returned to Richmond, California and as City Manager of Richmond, he travelled to West Africa to attend the first African American Convocation. Over 300 leaders from all sectors of the United States met with 700 African leaders to develop relationships and share expertise in government, business, education, and healthcare. Isiah’s career was filled with accolades. The Minority Education & Employment News (MEENA) featured him and shared the following: “Mr. Turner has achieved unprecedented successful collaboration among public agencies, community-based organizations, labor, education, and the business community. He led an ambitious economic development program that led over 20,000 Richmond residents to find gainful employment. On his watch, private sector home development brought 3,000 new homes to Richmond. Under his guidance, Richmond’s Housing Authority was awarded a remarkable $35 million HOPE VI grant from the U.S. Department of HUD to rehabilitate and revitalize Easter Hill, a public housing community.” Isiah was credited with establishing a One-Stop Career Center System, which served the employment and training needs of Richmond area employers and job seekers and provided jobs for thousands. He also served as the Vice President of the NAACP for Richmond, California. Comments are closed.
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