BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"

Commissioner Kevin Boyce: Legacy in Action Transforming Personal Pain into Public Service

• Coach Tim Brown, Uncommon Life • Season 5 • Episode 13

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Commissioner Kevin Boyce's remarkable journey from childhood tragedy to trailblazing public service offers a masterclass in resilience and purposeful living. When his father was murdered at age seven, Boyce found himself navigating life with a single mother working multiple jobs to make ends meet. What could have been a story of limitation instead became one of extraordinary possibility through what Boyce calls his "village" - recreation leaders who ensured he had lunch when food was scarce at home, teachers who advocated for him during troubled times, and coaches who nurtured his natural abilities.

The conversation reveals how Boyce's athletic background shaped his life philosophy: "It's not about how you start off in life, it's how you finish, and you can determine how you finish." This mindset carried him through becoming the first Black commissioner in Franklin County's history and co-founding Adelphi Bank - a modern iteration of a historic Black-owned financial institution that once catalyzed business development in Columbus's King Lincoln neighborhood.

Perhaps most compelling is Boyce's creation of RISE, an organization exclusively focused on addressing poverty and racism through innovative approaches. His story about a county employee who couldn't accept a promotion because it would cause her to lose childcare subsidies illuminates the complex barriers facing working families - and his determination to create real solutions. Through it all, faith remains his centering force, offering grace during struggles and guidance during successes. When asked about his legacy, Boyce looks not to professional accomplishments but to raising sons who embody compassion and service - a powerful reminder that our most meaningful impact often comes through the lives we touch most directly. Join us to discover how your own journey, regardless of its starting point, can become a legacy that transforms communities for generations to come.

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Speaker 1:

Something bad happens, I get down like everybody else, you know, and I struggle and I ask why and I ask for guidance. And I don't always make the perfect decision, even today. But I'm grateful that God is a forgiving God, that God is a God of grace that knows where you are mentally.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Be A Baller where we're building a lifelong legacy for our families, communities and the world. Your host, coach Tim Brown, is excited for you to join him on this journey. On each episode, we'll be talking about how to be intentional about building a lasting legacy. We'll be exploring what it means to leave a mark that goes beyond just our lives but has a positive impact on those around us and even generations to come. So if you're looking for inspiration, guidance and practical tips on how to build a lasting legacy that makes a difference, then you're in the right place. So grab your earbuds, get comfortable and let's dive in. It's time to be a baller.

Speaker 3:

Welcome to Be A Baller where we talk about building a lifelong legacy. I'm your host, coach Tim Brown, and today I'm honored to have an exceptional guest who embodies what it means to building and making a lasting impact in our communities. Please welcome Commissioner Kevin Boyce, president of the Franklin County Board of Commissioners.

Speaker 1:

Kevin, welcome to the show. It's good to be here. I love the conversation.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you co-founded a bank.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, delphi bank 30 years. Yeah, yeah, first black owned bank in america 30 years. Um, and a lot of people asked me kind of like, what inspired? Yeah, and you know, and the story is actually pretty good um, um, you know, I would take people back to March of 2020.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and COVID was happening, george Floyd had passed away and, if you think back to the media, during that time, myself, congresswoman Joyce Beatty and Shannon Hardin went down to the protest to encourage peaceful protest and ended up being pepper sprayed by Columbus police, made national news and it was a situation where they were. We were just trying to help get the crowd in order, cause it was growing, and we got pepper spray. And later that night I met home trying to get the pepper spray off my skin, out of my hair, and my friend calls me and we're talking about what happened. And, uh, you know, he says why is it still happening in America? Why are we still dealing with these kind of problems?

Speaker 1:

And I said, well, until we really get at core issues like wealth gap in America and access to capital, you know, allowing people to buy homes to build wealth for the next generation, we're always going to cycle back on these issues and I said so we need more black on banks. And he said he's not black. He said, but he said why don't you start one? And I was like, who better? I was like let me call you back. And I got online and typed in how do you start a bank?

Speaker 1:

And it said two things. It said one, that banking is the second most regulated industry on the globe, second to nuclear power plants. Yes, it also said that. Number two it is the most, one of the most expensive businesses to start and in complex. So, uh, so I started that day writing a business plan and development and you know, today we're in our second year, we're in our third year of being an existing bank.

Speaker 3:

It's awesome. There's a story behind that bank as well. The name yeah, I think the name is still. You know, I think there's a story behind it. It is.

Speaker 1:

So Adelphi is Greek for brothers, so you got to think of it that way the brothers. So Put it that way the brothers. So that's the first part, the first secret part. But Adelphi, in the early 20s in central Ohio, adelphi Loan and Savings Bank was started by several black men in an organization called the Boulay. They created this black bank because none of the businesses that people wanted to start they could get loans from majority banking institutions. So they started this Adelphi Bank, the brother's bank, loan and savings bank, to help build what became a catalyst to the area of Mount Vernon or King Lincoln area, of a lot of the businesses that existed.

Speaker 1:

That bank unfortunately went belly up during the Great Depression. But we, as we were building the bank, we discovered that history in central Ohio and then it turns out the location where we were targeting was where they were located and this company was building a new building over the spot. But they also had saved the facade that says Adelphi Loan and Savings Bank on it. So that's today where the restaurant is there. It's called Waves, so that's really where the bank was. But we're just on the same block on the end and just the lineup of how the building is built and the size we needed was on the corner. But yeah, so that's the history.

Speaker 3:

Commissioner Boyce, I know you grew up right here in central Ohio, in your hometown. Can you talk about your family and the village that raised you?

Speaker 1:

You know, thank you for asking that. So you know, my story is like a lot of, unfortunately, american black family stories where I was raised by a single mom, my dad, henry Boyce. He was a two-time Vietnam Marine veteran who came back to his own community and had his life taken at an early age. I was seven when that happened, when he was murdered, and so it really left my mom to try to kind of struggle and figure out how to navigate, you know, the seventies, with three kids I was the youngest, uh and to try to figure out, um, how to just work through that time. This is 1978. And um, uh, but she did, you know. She worked three and four jobs, you know, and did the best she could. Um, uh, like a lot of uh, families like that. We struggled with different things but I was fortunate because I had teachers and coaches and a grandmother that really stepped in to fill the void of not having that whole family and even having the trauma of having lost my dad at an early age. And so when you say village, that's real for me because there are so many people, the list is so long of the people who had some type of seed in my life for what we would classify as success. Today I wouldn't be where I was.

Speaker 1:

I think of and it's not the obvious.

Speaker 1:

I mean, certainly I had in high school, football coaches, basketball coaches, track coaches that were good to me. But even before that, when I was seven and my father was just killed, I had recreation leaders like James and I don't remember James' last name, but James who made sure I was at the recreation center every day and checked on me and brought me lunch, because he knew we didn't have food at home, and he encouraged me to come back every day and helped assure me that I had a special athletic ability that I'd be able to do something with and it gave me that mental strength to work harder and to develop that, and so, as a result, I was fortunate, and again, a bunch of coaches and teachers along the way. But I think back to James because he was the first one to really seed that in me. And then I've had the fortune of being a division one college athlete, you know, and that is a unique group to be in.

Speaker 1:

But I look at it as, like the village you talked about, there was James, there was Coach Howard, there was Coach Miller, there was Coach Smith, coach Steele, coach Williams. You know, miss Beck, you know I had so many teachers Miss Ashmore, mr Osborne, mr Nixon who all, one way or another, were very much a part of helping me.

Speaker 1:

Whatever it is they saw in me. Lord knows what that was.

Speaker 2:

Whatever it is.

Speaker 1:

they saw in me, they nurtured and encouraged, and so today I know that I wouldn't be where I am today without folks like that playing a role in my life.

Speaker 3:

It's something as you were sharing. I was just thinking about all the men that you mentioned. You know all the men models. I taught fifth grade boys for six years. My model for me teaching was my sixth grade teacher, mr Clayton Burroughs, first African-American male teacher I saw. When I saw Mr Burroughs I said I want to be just like Mr Burroughs. And I tell guys, I said, as men, as young boys, we'll see a man and we say I want to be just like that man. Oh, absolutely. And we spend the rest of our life trying to be like that man. You know, I'm still trying to be like Mr Burroughs.

Speaker 3:

We still talk today, you know you talked about athletics and the word on the street says you're a pretty good athlete there in high school. Over there at East High School you talk about you used to attract scholarship and all that. Can you talk about the life lessons you learned from being a part of that team?

Speaker 1:

You know. It's funny you say that you know. So I started off at Brookhaven High School. So I grew up in Linden, but when we had a lot of issues, we were homeless at one time. We had just many, many issues. So I would go back and forth with my grandmother who lived in the Mount Vernon area, and so it was Linden or Mount Vernon. And so when I was with my mom as Linden, I was at Brookhaven and we were bussed out to Brookhaven, uh. And then, um, I had an incident, uh, a fight that I got in and got in some trouble, and then I had to transfer permanently out of Brookhaven and go to East and when you're at that age 15, 16, you don't have a clue at least I didn't about the things in life that matter or are important.

Speaker 1:

And so, as I think about what I learned from athletics, when I think about going on to be a Division I college athlete and being able to be all-conference and compete at a very high level, I think if there was one thing that it taught me is it's not about how you start off in life, it's how you finish, and you can determine how you finish. You can't control how you start off all the time. And in track and field, in races, um, the start is meaningful in the race, but at the end of the day it comes down to how you cross that finish line. And so you know, I I do that. I think about that in the mental sense too. Um, you know, and you think about the lessons that you learn on the field, on the track, on the court, um, and they're rooted in adversity. If you are losing, you get up and you fight harder. If you're not that good at a certain thing, you work to get better. If you are good at something, you work to perfect it. And I think all of those athletic lessons and stories have transferred into my principles of how I go about life and they've been meaningful contributors to. I mean, think about it.

Speaker 1:

I was just a little kid in the hood whose father was murdered when I was seven. I grew up around a lot of drugs and violence. I never dreamed that I would one day own a bank, that I would one day own a bank. I never dreamed that I'd one day be the treasurer of the state of Ohio at 37, or the president of their county commission, or the first black commissioner in the history of Franklin. Those things seem like a far off destiny or experience, but yet they're true and any young people listening.

Speaker 1:

I want you to know that you don't know where your life is going to take you. It will have ups and downs and it will have, you know, falls and you will have heights, but it's more about how you finish. It's taking those experiences all along the way and learning from them and, more importantly, grow. And I got to tell you I haven't perfected any of that. I'm still growing as a person. At my age today, I won't say what it is, but at my age today, I will tell you there's not a day goes by I don't learn something about life. And maybe now, at this age, I'm much more sensitive to life lessons, where I absorb them easier and I realize what I don't know and I realize what I do know. And that's maybe the difference between the younger Kevin and older.

Speaker 1:

Kevin today and I wish I had known some of that when I was younger. If I could go talk to my younger self, I would say something to that effect. I'd say hey, little buddy, look at me, when I'm talking to you here and I'm trying to tell you this is going to be for your old kid man. I'd say trust your gut and instinct. I'd say, you know, if you work hard and give it all, you got even what appears to be failure isn't. I'd tell you that you know, always shoot high, aim high. You know, and you know, when you set the standard that you know you can achieve, just so you can feel good about yourself, you are doing yourself a disservice. You know, and so I mean those are the basic things I learned from athletics, right?

Speaker 3:

Well, that's powerful. You know one thing when you look in that mirror, like I look in the mirror today, I say thank you, young Tim Brown, you know being so old as Tim Brown, I can enjoy this life, yeah.

Speaker 1:

You know, I look at myself. I say that, daggone young Tim, I wish I was where you were. I'd be like boy, I wish I could knock him inside your head, buddy. But when?

Speaker 3:

you look back on it, all that the young Kevin went through is helping.

Speaker 1:

No question, no question. All that, and you know another part about Tim, that the even better beauty about that for the young Kevin is I've got two sons.

Speaker 1:

And I can part that wisdom to them and I can help. They're going to have their falls and they're going to have their heights, but I can help them through it even better. And you know, my oldest son is a two-time Ivy League graduate and I remember when he was in, when we were going through the college process, and I'm sitting there thinking we're on College of Harvard and Yale and Brown, and every time we sat on one of those campuses I would get choked up to think. When I was that age, I was still dealing with the remnants of my father being murdered and just I didn't know if I was going to college. I didn't know what was going on. There were so many different things going on. And here we are, next generation mike, and we're on campus of harvard and he's really considering.

Speaker 1:

This is not just like an experience, like this is. He has choices and options. Yes, that I think, and and to me that's really life's beauty.

Speaker 3:

Yes, you know when, when you can pass on to the next generation an even better path and experience in life than yours you know, uh, as we, as we, as we continue our conversation, what I'm hearing is can you talk about the role that faith has played in your life? I'm sure that you know, I'm sure you had those times when, like god, why me, you know, and and those type of, about 10 minutes ago, yeah, we talked about that time in life that's.

Speaker 1:

I was saying that on the way over here. Yeah, I was like, oh, perfect, christmas dinner, I get to be here, you know one. There's not a day goes by that I don't thank God and try to recognize the gifts that he's given me but, more importantly, try to recognize the pathway that he has set for me. Try to recognize the pathway that he has set for me and I'm so grateful, through all of the valleys that I've been through in life, to, oh, sorry. Okay, I'm so grateful that all of the valleys that I've been through in life, to know that he's watching over me, to know that I'm where I'm supposed to be, and to know that there's a higher expectation, even after that experience good, bad or indifferent and so when something bad happens, I get down like everybody else and I struggle and I ask why, and I ask for guidance, that kind of thing.

Speaker 1:

And I don't always make the perfect decision even today, make the perfect decision even today. But I'm grateful that God is a forgiving God, that God is a God of grace that knows where you are mentally and I can hide that with you. I can come in here and smile and act like my day has been okay and good. But he knows, he knows the struggles that I've had today and he knows that he's got something else in store for me and, whatever it is, he's given me the mental electricity to keep moving and keep going and, to be honest with you, to serve. I always pray that I always say God, help, guide me to do the things that you put me here to do, so that I make the right choices, the right decisions and then deliver what you created me for to do, because that's what I feel like life's journey is all about is figuring out what God has put you on this earth to do.

Speaker 3:

You know, Commissioner Boyce, you've truly been a trailblazer in public service. Thank you. Some of the roles that you've had and just the opportunities and the doors you've opened for others Can you, throughout your distinguished 30-year career in public service, what advice would you give to those who are just starting on this journey?

Speaker 1:

Ooh, okay, that's a loaded question right there. I mean, I have a lot of young people that work for me now and what I tell them now is let's start you off right, learning to do things in the right way so that, as you matriculate mentally in your career, you can build off of every experience. Build off of every experience. And so it's not about the mistakes you make my staff. They know that they can make a mistake and I'm going to get after them about it, but we're not going to live in that space.

Speaker 1:

I'm not going to judge them on those things. I'm really going to judge you on how you move forward. I'm really going to judge you on how you recover from, you know, a little stumble. And so, you know, I just try to tell them you know, be focused on your growth, and that's partly my responsibility too. You know we can. It's great that I have a group of staff, people that kind of help me deliver the job, but at the end of the day, we're in this together. It's as much my responsibility to help you grow as a professional as it is you to help me deliver the job I'm in today, and I think, if we understand that, your growth and my experience to deliver the job is going to match one another and we're going to have a good experience and I feel like I preach that with them and I think we get results that way.

Speaker 3:

Your experience in public service started young. What was that light bulb moment where you said you know what I want to do this?

Speaker 1:

That never happened. I still be thinking what was I thinking? Trying to get into politics? Okay, so that's interesting too. So I was in college in the University of Toledo, and I had a professor Okay, and it was a black guy, his name was Jack Ford. Jack Ford later became the mayor of Toledo, but Jack Ford, my professor and I was in class, took this political science because I was a county major at the time.

Speaker 1:

And I took this political science because let's see what this is about. And he's talking about the government process. And I'm in the front row like wait a minute, hold on. But when you do this, why does this happen? And I'm like, well, wait a minute. And he's like all right, enough questions, talk to me after class. So I waited for him after class and I walked into his car and I'll never forget. We got to his car and he said look, I could tell from the minute you stepped in my class that there was something unique about you. He said just stick with it. And so, long story short, I won't go into all of it. But years later, as I was graduating, that was like my freshman, sophomore year Years later, when I was graduating, he called me and he said, hey, you graduate now, why don't you come work in politics?

Speaker 1:

And he actually offered me a job and I came back to Columbus and he was a state rep at the time and I ran his office and I think back then he was a big guy but he was a very well-known leader in Northwest Ohio and he said to me I never forget him sitting down to me he said I want you to go into politics, I think you should go into politics. And I said me, go into politics, I don't think so. And he said, yeah, you're built for it. And he's like you're going to go a long way in politics and you're going to do very well. And I was like, really me. And he was like, yeah, and so I worked for him. Then I was promoted as policy staff, then I was promoted to chief of staff, so I was like 26.

Speaker 1:

And I was chief of staff in the House of Representatives and then Coleman runs for mayor. He was on city council. Mayor Coleman runs for mayor and creates a vacancy on city council and everybody in the community started coming to me and saying you should run for this seat. You should run for this seat, so I go for the appointment. I don't get it the first time. The guy named Fred Ranciere gets it. But I knew that I had interviewed so well because everyone was like you should have got it. He's much more experienced than you and he was. He's a great leader, got good friends here, but anyway. So he stepped down after about six months because he had some family issues. But they all came to me and said well, you're the guy You're getting an appointment.

Speaker 1:

And so here I was, 27, 28, getting appointed to Columbus City Council, the city I grew up in. And that's when I feel like I made the choice of a career in politics. I thought, okay, jack was right, I guess I'll do this. At the time I just wanted, like everybody else maybe, to raise a family, live a respectful Christian, good life and just kind of be a good person, good citizen. You know, and never did I expect to have the ability to impact the quality of life for other people in this way in public service. So I don't know if there was ever a light bulb, but I definitely there were moments where I knew I was in for the long haul.

Speaker 3:

Now you put that good old accounting degree to work as well, you know, being a state treasurer and working on wall street and all that how has that helped shape kind of what you do now today?

Speaker 1:

Well, you know, I ended up switching majors too. So I was a county major, Then I switched to public political science after, you know, and and then in my master's is public finance. But I think it's definitely shaped me. I think there was always a natural sense of financial acuity with me, and my mom and my grandmother used to talk about how, as a kid, I always had money saved up, I always had money, I always had resources to do, and they would be like where did you get this money from? What are you doing? You know, my mom said I used to borrow money from you.

Speaker 2:

You remember?

Speaker 1:

like and I'd be like yeah, I remember you know, and so I think there's an element of natural, a natural element to it. You were talking about a friend of mine, tom Gibson, I grew up with and one of the stories about him is about me being protecting him from a bully. And there's another story I'll share, but connected to it is the issue that took me out of Brookhaven and put me at East High School, which was a fight that I intervened with a guy that was getting bullied and I ended up in a fight with the bully and some other people and it turned into a big melee and I got arrested and I got a charge of gang fighting when I was 14 or 15. But I'll never forget my teacher.

Speaker 1:

My teacher came down to advocate for me in court during the trial, during the trial process, and she said her name was Miss Beck and she said he comes from a community that's really challenged. It was at brick haven and she said but he's gifted mathematically and I was always over there, like I am. You know what are you talking about. I remember her saying like he is gifted mathematically and that I believe that if you give him a chance, he's going to have a role or a job in finance or an account or something number oriented, and so it all does kind of add up. My mom, my grandmother said it, and then I just remember my teacher, ms Beck, saying that during the situation where I had dealt with the bully, Something how the Bible says all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.

Speaker 3:

Obviously, god had a purpose in all of that. You know, and look at you now you know In your role as a county commissioner you started a program called RISE. Can you share about that particular program some of the others?

Speaker 1:

Thanks, tim, many others Thanks, tim, you know. So, yeah, rise is an organization that we created that exclusively focuses on ideas to challenge and address poverty and racism. You know, when I first started as a commissioner and I was the first black commissioner in history of Franklin County in 2017, was elected in 2016,. Elected, started in. Elected In 2016,. I was elected, it started in 2017.

Speaker 1:

And immediately I wanted to get at the issue of disparities in poverty around race. You know, central Ohio has less than 30% minorities, but when you look at the welfare roles and you look at correctional institution roles, all of those are disproportionate to Black people and I wanted to find ways to really get at it. My colleagues John O'Grady and Marilyn Brown at the time we huddled up and we agreed that poverty and racism was going to be at the core of our mission, and so we did this whole study that outlined strategies to try to create jobs, to address education, housing, infrastructure, and at the end of the convening, I said to everyone yeah, but what's the big idea? We know we need better paying jobs, we know we need more affordable housing, we know we need better access to quality health care, but what is the idea that's going to address racism and poverty and the disparities that exist with our race. And I said we need an organization that essentially is the think tank to take big ideas and try to pilot those and see just what we can do If we think outside the box, we think big and really try to do something differently than what we've been doing.

Speaker 1:

It is not simply of giving you food stamps. That's going to help change and sustain your life. It's not simply about access to Medicaid. It is about providing families and people with the trajectory to do those things on their own, to be able to have a good paying job on their own. Things on their own to be able to have a good paying job on their own. And so Rise is exclusively created to try to take ideas, germinate them into meaningful ways of addressing poverty and racism, and one of those that Rise is doing, as an example, is a program called Motherful, which basically is a stop gap for single moms that run into emergencies or situations. You know, you're a single mom with three kids and the transmission goes out. What do you do? That's $3,000. Now, tim, I had a mom that came to me. She worked for Franklin County okay, she had two kids for Franklin County. Okay, she had two kids and I've seen a good paying job working for Franklin County and she said I just got a promotion. And she had tears in her eyes.

Speaker 3:

She said I just got a promotion.

Speaker 1:

And I said that's congratulations, start all the way. But she said no, I can't accept it. And I said well, why? And she said because if I take it it'll raise my income and I'll lose the child care subsidy that I get. And so I can't take that, because that's more meaningful to me in my household to have child care subsidy. So I'm going to have to reject the promotion. And so I went to our JFS people. I said that just can't be, we can't do that to her. And they say yeah, that's basically the federal guidelines require that.

Speaker 1:

But then they noticed something. They were like wait a minute, she's pregnant with her third. She was pregnant. She had a belly that said she was pregnant and she's pregnant. They were like we're going to have to knock her off. She can take the promotion, we'll knock her off, but when she has that third kid she'll requalify for the benefits. And so they knocked her off. She took the money and knocked her off. And then she had a third kid and it got back on and I said that's absurd, that's absolutely ridiculous. And so Rise is set up. We created Motherful to help mothers like that sort of get over the hump. Here she is gainfully employed, working hard, doing the best she can, and she gets a promotion from it and can't take it. And so Rise is set up to really help solve those kinds of problems so that that mother and, more importantly, the next generation, those kids, they, have an even better chance to rise above poverty and racism and all the things that tend to set families back.

Speaker 3:

Boy, you in here preaching, and that's so real.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is, it is, it is.

Speaker 3:

And I think that's why one of your colleagues, jordan Miller, jordan said to Tabe when he talked about how important mentors are we talk about mentors, but Jordan said this we all need mentors, but you need a sponsor, somebody at the table, to say, like, for you you had some sponsors say, hey, give him a chance, give him a chance, and that's what you're doing now.

Speaker 3:

You're at the table, You're that sponsor, you say this is wrong and you're in a position where you can do something Absolutely and not just conversation-wise, you know, can really really make some things happen. So I applaud you for that, for sure.

Speaker 1:

And I'll just add too, I appreciate Jordan saying that Jordan is my business partner. And you know, when I first started writing the plan for the bank, you know, I mean you know you say, hey, I'm starting a bank, I'm going to write a bank, and most people give you that laugh. They're like, okay, nice wish, young man, have a nice day. Okay, good luck with that. You know, but Jordan was one of the first people I called.

Speaker 2:

And.

Speaker 1:

I said I wrote this little outline of a plan. I know you've been in banking for you know 100 years. Can you take a look at it? And if I said, if I'm ridiculous, I'm not going to, my feelings aren't going to be hurt or whatever, I just want some feedback. And he said, okay, sure, he calls me back the next day, he's like hey, I think you should continue to pursue that. I think this is good, I think this is actually going to work. And so then I was like well, what are you up to these days, George? You know, like I heard you retired recently. Yeah, I was like you want to join me? And so he did, and so we've been tied at the hip ever since, that's a blessing.

Speaker 3:

You know as we come around the corner. This has been a great interview. This is a legacy podcast. What is the legacy of Commissioner Kevin Boyce?

Speaker 1:

Wow, I mean, I really have to think about that. I've never given that any thought because, as you're going through, trying to solve problems and trying to build a better life for people and trying to be a good person, those things I just don't think about it. But I've been to a couple of funerals lately. Tim, that really touched me and made me think about what do I want people to say about me at my funeral? I was at the mayor of Houston his funeral on Saturday and he was a good friend of mine, he was a client of mine in the investment banking world. And then I've had relatives die and others. Bob Black just died the other day and so many other people.

Speaker 1:

And people always say when you're born, we celebrate your life and then when you die, we honor your legacy. But it's really the dash in between that defines us. It's what you're doing every day that matters most. So I'm thinking out loud here. I would say simply that my legacy would have to be rooted in the type of sons that I've raised, because they will live far beyond me, presumably. Hopefully they live far beyond me and my expectation or my real legacy would be that they are good, productive, strong, strong, smart, christian leadership-oriented people, men, and I think I've seeded most of those things in them. They will have to evolve and develop on their own now as adults, and I'm not there around them every day like I was as a child for them. I've only been able to seed them with, I think, of the things that we talk all the time very close, but but as they evolve and develop into the men that they're going to be in life to me, that's my legacy, you know to to see them be good people, to see them be compassionate and engage in the community. To see them.

Speaker 1:

You know my youngest son, who's graduating next month. You know he wasn't a great high school student and I was so worried about him and now he's going to graduate with college with almost straight A's, you know. And every time I see him he's such a strong young man who's developed, got his mother their mother is just an amazing woman too, so I I credit her for it as well. But but my legacy would be rooted in what, what happens with them, and I think you know watching them and seeing them be good people. And it's not about the accomplishments. You know accomplishments are subjective, you know it's it's really about. Are you a good person? Do you pray before you eat? Do you pray before you go to bed at night? Do you talk to God, you know, on a regular basis. Do you treat people nice? Do you say hello to people? Do you help somebody if you see they need help? You know, those are the things that, to me, would be my greatest legacy.

Speaker 3:

Wow Well, commissioner Boyce, I want to thank you for your time as we come to close up today's episode, and I want to thank you for your commitment to service. I hear that word, and when you look up the word service, you're going to see your picture on all the service you've done for our community, and so we appreciate you for that. As always, I want to thank our listeners for listening to Be A Baller podcast, as always, continue to build a lifelong legacy. Thank you, commissioner Boyce, for being on the show. Thanks for having me, my friend.

Speaker 2:

If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with family and friends. The Be A Baller Podcast is available on all major podcast platforms. This podcast was created by Coach Tim Brown and recorded and edited by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller.