Leon Wynter

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Location

Ossining, New York, USA

Birthday

August 30

Bio

First a Christian, then American and black by way of Jamaican immigrant parents and growing up in the Bronx, NY. Born in 1953, just in time for everything that mattered: the space race, the triumph of the civil rights movement, disco, cable and the Macintosh. I saw Bonnie & Clyde at 14, bought the White Album at 15 and the rest is my history. I cheered Spike Lee's debut "She's Gottta Have It" at 33 and have had little good to say about him since about 37. That's when I started writing a column for the Wall Street Journal called "Business & Race." The title alone was a victory, and it ran for 10 years. But sometimes I think I should have switched back to writing tech when I had the chance, and the Internet was just a twinkle in the DOD advanced research budget (I know, because I covered it in '85, during my stint in the Washington press corps). But that would have been too predictable, right? (And look how the Journal turned out, anyway.) Why become Malcom Gladwell when you could be, well, me? Twice an author (American Skin, Crown, 2002) (I Haven't Had A Bad Day Since, The Memoir of Congressman Charles B. Rangel, St. Martin's Press, 2007) thrice married and twice divorced, twice a professor of journalism, once and always the father of Grace Alexandra Wynter, age 10. Why be brilliant, rich and currently when really smart, house poor and formerly offers so much—like Open Salon— and only demands what you can spare? Whenever I get there, I'm on time, right? Other formerlies: NPR commentator, commercial banker, Yale graduate, Elder of the Presbyterian Church, Stern School MBA. (Ok, I still have the degrees, framed, right in front of me on the wall. But they're OLD). I'm just in time to discover that life is not about being current; it's about being present with God for my wife, child and loved ones.