A man whose work in the South Haven community dating back more than a decade earned him the unofficial title of "Community Pastor," has been recognized today by Lake Michigan College as the organization's Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Award winner for 2017. South Haven Pastor Aaron Cobbs, who actually joined the renowned civil rights leader on walks in Selma, Alabama, was presented with the high honor at the college's 22nd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration this morning.
More than 400 people attended the breakfast ceremony where presenters spoke on the theme, “Moving Forward,” inspired by the King quote, “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
Presenters included Congressman Fred Upton; LMC Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Michael Lindley; Lakeland Health’s Diversity and Inclusion Program Manager Danny Sledge; LMC President Emeritus Dr. Bob Harrison; and LMC students, Rolando Hernandez and Lionel Kanyowa.
For the past 16 years, LMC has recognized an area organization or individual during the event. Pastor Cobbs was selected for honoring the spirit of Dr. King’s legacy through his dedication and service to the South Haven community and beyond. Pastor Cobbs joined Martin Luther King Jr. in two walks from Selma.
Cobbs has been affectionately referred to as the “Community Pastor”. He has officially served as the pastor of South Haven’s Spiritual Church of Christ since 2005, but he’s provided more than a decade of leadership to various civic organizations including South Haven’s Housing Commission, Habitat for Humanity and South Haven’s Diversity Coalition.
Cobbs spearheaded the Seed of Hope Scholarship, which provides annual college scholarships to students from South Haven’s First Ward community. In February of 2009, he received a special Tribute Award from the Black History Leadership Society for being a role model in ministry, service and business.
Upon receipt of today's award, Pastor Cobbs said, “I’m so grateful to receive this and I hope I can live up to it.” He referenced Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and urged the audience to “remain awake thorough a great revolution.” He said, “When we hear that famous speech, that line when he said he had been to the mountain top, he said he might not get there with us but that we are the people who will get to the Promised Land. The people he is talking about are us. We were in his dream. That’s what I want us to remember. We were in his dream, and in my opinion, too many of us are still trying to live in his dream, and his dream was our can of Red Bull to get us energized to get to the Promised Land.”
Cobbs was born in Grenada, Mississippi in 1946 as the youngest of nine siblings. He and his childhood sweetheart, Dorothy, came to South Haven in 1968. Before answering the call to ministry, Cobbs was employed by National Motors Casting Company until 1983 and then the Watervliet Paper Company until 1995. He and his wife ran a clothing store, managed rental properties and opened the A&D One Stop convenience store. They are parents to one son, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A Race Relations Council Forum will be held, tomorrow, Tuesday, January 17th from noon to 2pm at LMC’s Napier Avenue Campus in the Brown Lecture Hall. The theme is “Promoting Racial Equality in Education."
That forum will address a variety of strategies for promoting racial equality in education. The first hour will be devoted to presentations by four panelists: Jeffrey Booker, Larry Feldman, Rebecca Fudge and Gladys Peeples-Burks. The second hour will be devoted to questions and discussion between panel members and attendees.
For more information about MLK Jr. events at LMC, contact Kathy Tebell at (269) 927-6197 or tebell@lakemichigancollege.edu.
