By Charles
Toutant
Staff Writer
Liston Abbott has spent much
of his life being an activist, but you won't see him hollering or banging
a drum. The longtime East Windsor resident, who has served Better Beginnings,
the Community Action Service Center and other groups for 30 years, has
a quiet way of getting things done.
Mr. Abbott, an electrical engineer
who has been awarded four patents and in line for several others at his
job at the Samoff Center in West Windsor, has been able to pursue his interest
in science since he was a small boy growing up in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
As an adult he has worked to broaden the opportunities available to young
people in the East Windsor-Hightstown area.
Better Beginnings Childcare Center
in Hightstown recently honored Mr. Abbott for his longtime support to local
youngsters in his role as president of the center's board. A fairly recent
arrival to the area in the late 1960s, he has worked to resolve differences
between minorities and area police departments. Mr. Abbott also helped
bring the Community Action Service Center to Hightstown and to establish
Better Beginnings, which serves children from low- and moderate-income
families.
At a time when racial unrest
was brewing in Hightstown and across the nation, Mr. Abbott was a member
of the now-defunct Human Relations Commission,
recalls Bettie Witherspoon, executive director of Better
Beginnings. At a time before the federal government had established
its Head Start program, starting the preschool was a
way to give youngsters from less-privileged
homes an equal chance at success in school, Ms. Witherspoon said.
In his example and his patient
manner, he provided an example of how to get things done, Ms. Witherspoon
said.
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Liston Abbott holds a
special birthday card presented to him by the children and staff at Better
Beginnings, one of the local organizations he has served.
| "I was very action-oriented.
He calmed me down," Ms. Witherspoon said.
Mr. Abbott arrived in the area
with his wife, Joyce, when he came to work at RCA, former owner of
the Sarnoff center. He decided to get involved in the
human relations commission even though he was busy with his wife and his
young son, Wayne.
"It was quite rural
at that time -- my wife and I used to go to Trenton to shop," Mr. Abbott
recalled of his first experience in the area. There were clearly
tensions -- a lot of it grew out of incidents in the schools that spilled
out in the community. In his engineering career he's worked on development
of High Definition Television as a well communications on the Space Shuttle.
But in his work with local youths he would meet some who have never met
anyone like him.
"Part of my interest was in tutoring
and counseling the kids. To me, it's very important to give back to the
community," he said.
"I always remember a lot of times.
going to kids and telling them I'm an engineer and having them ask about
what kind of train do I drive."
Growing up, his father was a carpenter
and his mother was a |
domestic worker, and his
"lower middle class" life allowed him to enter science fairs and earn the
nickname of "the inventor" among his young friends.
There was no university on his island, so he left to attend Hampton Institute
in Virginia oxi a scholarship, but later transferred to the State University
of New York so he could work for RCA, which paid his tuition.
Throughout his career he has
sought to tell minority youths about opportunities in engineering, and
participates in mentoring programs for teens. He also installs and maintains
computers at Better Beginnings, sometimes coming to the center at night
to do work on the system, only to find the offices jammed with cots and
other children's paraphernalia that must be packed away to permit sharing
facilities with the center's landlord, the First Presbyterian Church.
Working with Ms. Witherspoon,
he has weathered a funding crisis and now must bring about a transition
in leadership as the two ponder retirement. The problem is both
Ms. Witherspoon and Mr. Abbott love their work so much that they find it
difficult to step away.
"It has been extremely pleasurable,"
he said. "I find it a joy to be helpful."
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