Sitting down one warm, sunny morning with warm and sunny James Forte is akin to inviting a clarinetist into your home.
Except he turns out to be a sprawling, beautifully harmonious symphony orchestra.
Born to reshape history, Mr. Forte was the first black police officer and later the first black firefighter in previously single shaded Culver City.
On Sunday afternoon at 1 o’clock, Mr. Forte will be honored in downtown Los Angeles at the African American Firefighter Museum, 1401 S. Central Ave.
Like the many sweet notes of melodious marriage the past 59 years to his beloved Jobie, there is nothing accidental about the timing of this notable ceremony.
Fifty years ago next month – or as he likes to say, “7-7-67” – on Culver City’s 50th birthday, Mr. Forte joined the Police Dept.
Six years later, Mr. Forte leaped at an opening in the Fire Dept., and the rest really is history.
Twenty-two years later, at age 55 in 1995, he retired to a life of softly billowing bliss and fulfillment that many merely glimpse when dreaming..
At 77 years old, the tall, slender, quiet-spoken Mr. Forte from northeast Texas straddles a towering mountain of enviable achievements and envied values.
A friend recently said succinctly that “positivity is his triumph.”
Mr. Forte’s upbeat outlook and his unquenchable lifelong faith make optimists seem like collectors of gloom.
(To be continued)