For nearly two years, Chicagoan Bill Pinkney has been giving students long-distance lessons in geography, social studies, science and math. He may well have introduced a few new words to their vocabularies, too, verbs like
”circumnavigate” and ”persevere.”
Circumnavigation became the former marketing executive`s full-time job when he went to sea-alone-in a 47-foot sailboat in August 1990.
And perseverance is what was required to complete the 27,000-mile journey earlier this month in Boston, making Pinkney the fourth American, and first African-American, to sail solo around the globe.
What a feat! Congratulations, Bill Pinkney.
Chicago`s newly famous sailor also deserves plaudits for nurturing perseverance and other good qualities in the thousands of students here and in other cities who, via ”video postcards” and telephone interviews, tracked Pinkney`s progress over a difficult route that took him under the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Horn and three other southernmost capes.
”You have to stay vigilant,” he said in a recent interview with the Tribune`s William Recktenwald. ”You have to plan. You have to be persistent. Once you have made a commitment, you don`t give up, no matter what.”
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The values that stood Pinkney in good stead on his record-setting journey were celebrated Wednesday when Chicago officially welcomed the intrepid voyager home. So were Pinkney`s selfless efforts to encourage and inspire the thousands of schoolchildren with whom he communicated during his voyage.
”I love talking with kids,” Pinkney told Recktenwald. ”It is the strength and driving force of this trip.”
A contingent of students greeted Pinkney at Navy Pier, where he re-enacted his landing, and schools Supt. Ted Kimbrough spoke of him as a
”treasure.” That he is-a treasure who unselfishly conveyed knowledge of the wider world to curious youngsters.