This is an opinion column.

Dale Thornton embodies what can happen when a child is raised by an empowering example. Now, he want to be one.

Dale is the son of Larry Thornton, a man who is a gifted artist, an inspiring author and speaker, one of Alabama’s most successful entrepreneurs, and a respected board member at several prominent companies, including McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. A man, too, who gained custody of his 10-year-old son following a divorce, who attended PTA meetings, washed and folded clothes, who hugged his son—all while birthing his first McDonald’s franchise. A man who taught and showed his son how to be.

“I wanted,” the father says, “to shape his thinking.”

“I was able to see it firsthand,” Dale tells me separately. “Being on time, looking people in the eye, being a man of your word. I was able to see him grow as I grew. It’s been a great journey to be on with him. I consider myself very blessed and lucky.”

Together, the two men—yes, men, Dale is 41 now, with a son, too—own seven McDonald’s franchisees in the Birmingham area. Larry opened his first in 1992; Dale followed his father’s path: After learning at his father’s hip, initially earning $1 and hour for his time in the store, the son opened his first McDonald’s franchise at the age of 25. He was then the youngest franchise owner in the chain’s vast system.

Because he had an example.

In 2011, Larry bequeathed $1,000,000 to his alma mater, Alabama State, the largest such donation by an alum in the institution’s history.

Now, Dale is treading in his father’s footprints again—now hoping others will follow.

A graduate of Miles College, Dale is bequeathing $500,000 to his alma mater, Miles College. He’s slated to publicly announce it Saturday morning, just ahead of the school’s homecoming game against Lane. The amount, too is the largest donation by an alum in that institution’s history.

Dale didn’t know that when he settled on the amount. “Because, you’ve had Dr. Bill Cosby [make a donation], you’ve had Charles Barkley, but they’re not alums, so, wow. That’s pretty cool.”

You almost wouldn’t have heard about it, but that, he was persuaded, wouldn’t have been an example—to other Miles alums and other young graduates of historically Black colleges and universities.

“I would’ve just donated anonymously,” Dale said. “But my goal is to get other Miles and HBCU alums to do something similar—maybe not the same amount. Look back at what Miles has given us. Many hands make light work. What if people gave $ 10,000, $15,000, $20,000, when they’re 40 or below, relatively healthy, not on too many medicines”

“That’s how the University of Alabama, your predominantly white institutions do it—with endowments. This is something we’re just not privy to. There’s nothing wrong with us. It’s just lack education; if you don’t know you don’t know. Imagine what we could do not just for Miles but for Alabama A&M, for Alabama state, for Morehouse. Because the HBCU is in trouble.

“Hopefully, I can be a catalyst.”

Army pivot

Born in North Birmingham and raised in Center Point, Dale Thornton originally wanted to join the army after graduating from Chelsea High School. That wasn’t the thinking Larry was trying to shape. “My father kept throwing my [mailings] away,” the son says with a laugh. “I’m glad he did; I wouldn’t have made it.”

Larry knew then-Miles President Dr. Allen Sloane and arranged an interview. The school captured Dale with a video presentation narrated by Christopher “Kid” Reid of the popular hip-hop due Kid ‘N Play, who attended Miles. “After that, I ended up falling in love with the school,” he said. “It was like magic.”

Dale “wasn’t much of a scholar,” he admits. But like many who attend HBCUs, he was massaged by attentive, available professors and other services, like counseling and tutoring. Services certainly available at non-HBCUs but often more embracing for young Black students still searching for their path. “Miles shaped a lot of who I am today,” Dale says.

Shaped in many ways. During his sophomore year, he “fell in love” with a fellow student and they had a child, a boy. They named him Tre. That focused Dale even further, “just trying to buy diapers and pay for daycare,” he says. “There weren’t any more Jordans, expensive jeans or partying. It was buying Similac and making sure he was taken care of. That was my first priority because I didn’t want my parents or hers to have to [help us].

“So, my career path was pretty much I was just gonna go to school and figure it out as I went.”

Larry didn’t stop shaping his son’s thinking, of course. Didn’t stop being an example. Dale and Larry were talking one day. “I asked him what it would take for me to get into the franchise development program.”

Bequest breakdown

Dale Thornton’s bequest is a creative compilation, anchored by a $250,000 life insurance policy, of which Miles is the beneficiary. “That won’t be good until I pass, which I hope is not for a long time,” Dale says jovially. Dale and Larry will contribute a portion any speaking they receive to the school. Additionally, several Miles students will receive a paid, immersive management training experience in all aspects of the franchises, shadowing Larry and Dale (much like Dale shadowed his father), along with Director of Administration Marko Herbert and Marketing Director Stephanie Drew and others. Finally, McDonald’s corporate is contributing $50,000.

Dale will give another $5,000 to the Miles band, money from the National Black McDonald’s Operators’ Thurgood Marshall Fund.

He’s done the math on the potential impact of his challenge to other alums. Miles has about 10 graduate chapters around the nation and many chapter presidents, as well as the national chapter president, are scheduled to join him on Saturday. “I want to see how I can get people in the Birmingham chapter [to contribute] first,” he says, “then move to Atlanta and other bigger cities. I want to shine a light on this [challenge] because as we get older, the people on whose shoulders we stood won’t be here. It’s my era’s responsibility to make Miles and HBCUs significant fifty to a hundred years into the future.”

In the last three years, Dale and Larry added three franchises to their portfolio.

“To be honest with you, I’m not done,” Dale shared. “It is not for more money. It’s just to be able to give better benefits and other things. I don’t want to have 20 and all that. I don’t want to get that big. I can use a couple of more, because we can do scholarships, there’s another Mayor Randall Woodfin out there, another Dale Thornton. We want to be able cultivate them. We can’t wait for our students get to high school because by that time, they’ve already made the decision and they’re already doing what they’re going to do. We can do more for the community.”

They can be. They can be examples.

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Roy S. Johnson is a 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary and winner of 2021 Edward R. Murrow prize for podcasts: “Unjustifiable”, co-hosted with John Archibald. His column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Press-Register. Reach him at [email protected], follow him at twitter.com/roysj, or on Instagram @roysj.