Stokes pays it forward

Published 12:20 am Saturday, December 17, 2011

Editor’s note: Fifty Plus is a weekly feature that provides a look at area senior citizens, their accomplishments and their life experiences. Fifty Plus prospects are asked to fill out a questionnaire concerning their lives.

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This week’s Fifty Plus takes a look at George Thomas Stokes Sr., a retiree who lives in Washington.

Where are you from originally?

Williamston.

When did you move here? Why?

1952. Got married.

To what clubs/church do you belong?

Cedar Hill Baptist Church, Williamston.

Education (list schools, starting with high school)

Rodgers School, Williamston.

If you weren’t doing what you are doing now, what would you be doing?

If I weren’t exercising, I would be sitting (at) home.

If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?

Pay my bills off and donate it to the poor and bless my children and grandchildren.

What is the thing most people don’t know about you?

I stay to myself (a loner).

What is your favorite food?

Steak.

What’s the last book you read?

Bible.

What is your favorite TV show?

“Matlock.”

Where would you go on your dream vacation?

Cruise to Jamaica.

What is your pet peeve?

Someone trying to tell me how to run my life. I did not live 83 years making bad decisions. I did make good choices.

What’s the best advice you ever received and who gave it to you?

My mother as a child to work for what you want, take care of yourself and family and stay out of trouble.

What’s the biggest difference between life as a senior as opposed to below age 30?

More knowledge on life, make better decisions. I can give better advice and make better choices. I can help with my children and grandchildren on (deciding) the right thing to do and make good decisions and choices.

Compiled by Mike Voss

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.