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A Tribute to Ron Wilkins
1941 - 2008
There are times in all our lives when we find ourselves in valleys of discouragement, despair and depression. During these darkest days the difference between recovering and succumbing is sometimes as simple as someone offering a hand up and a way out. A few years ago I found myself in one of those valleys. It was during those days that my path crossed that of a man named Ron Wilkins. He was a very humble man with as positive an outlook on life as I have ever known. He spoke directly to my heart when he said, “I can teach you to overcome the emotional pain you are carrying.” With that simple statement he gained an immediate disciple.
That was the beginning of a teacher/student relationship that carried me from the role of pain carrier to pain processor. Under Ron’s loving and excellent tutorage our relationship progressed from student/teacher to that of colleagues. In the process I learned that I was only one of hundreds, if not thousands, who Ron had lifted from the depths of despair to enjoying the abundant life.
Ron’s mother was a prostitute. At the age of four he was being taken to the bars where she plied her trade. People seemed to be enjoying that stuff in the glasses so Ron started helping himself while the patron was on the dance floor. By the age of eight Ron was an alcoholic. By the age of nineteen his life was controlled by eight of the top ten addictions. It was during a night of total despair and hopelessness that Run attempt suicide. But God had other plans for Ron Wilkins and during the days and years to come the clay was molded into the man who would serve God’s purpose.
Ron entered the business world and enjoyed a great deal of success in many business endeavors. He also cultivated a spiritual life; studying his Bible to the point that he was able to teach and preach to others. By the worlds standards Ron had lifted himself far above his childhood problems and the demons that had driven him to the point of suicide. Known only to himself, however, was the fact that he still carried all the demons and pain that he had on that dark night when he was nineteen. The inner man was something far different from the man he portrayed to the world.
At the age of forty-eight the demons won and Ron found himself facing five and a half years in prison. It was at this time that he committed himself as a patient in the Behavior Modification Institute of Atlanta, Ga. After seven weeks of 24/7 intense training Ron emerged as a man freed from the emotional pain he had been carrying from childhood as well as the addictions he had acquired along the way. For the first time in his life Ron knew the peace that passes all understanding.
During the next five years Ron taught the method to all who would listen. First fellow prisoners, then guards, then as a sanctioned class for inmates in five different prisons. Upon his release Ron spent the remainder of his life teaching others how to deal with emotional pain in positive and non-destructive ways. The list of those he has given a hand up and a way out is legion.
On April 10, 2008 Ron passed from this life at the age of sixty-six. He is no longer with us but his influence will never be diminished and in the years to come thousands will be taught a better way of life by those who had the privilege of sitting at the feet of Ron Wilkins. I count it as one of my greatest blessings to have been one of those students.
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