Dad laid foundation for his children to succeed

PORTSMOUTH

This is what George Lindsay's five children remember of their childhood,

Daddy getting up, going to work at his boring lab at the shipyard, and on Sundays, waking them for church. Dad reading everything - the newspaper, Ebony, Newsweek, even chemical and engineering journals. Dad telling stories of how he and his brothers missed school sometimes to work the farms in Princess Anne County, where he grew up.

They remember when the family saved up for a piano, because Dad wanted all of them to play like Beethoven.

The vacations to Mount Vernon, Tuskegee University and Yale, always with an eye toward history and hope.

How he helped other people's children with their science projects and wouldn't let his youngest charge for mowing neighbors' lawns in Cavalier Manor. How he insisted his children not work during the school year because money wasn't everything.

The time one of the girls opened up a science magazine and saw her father's byline, and how he shrugged it off with, "Oh, yeah."

With adult eyes, Lindsay's children see how their father led by example. They realize how smart he was and wonder what he could have done, where he could have gone, had he been born in a different era. But Lindsay never measured his success in titles or bonuses; he calls them by name.

Mary - the oldest, inquisitive, the valedictorian of the Manor High School Class of 1982. A Jefferson Scholar at the University of Virginia and graduate of Harvard Medical School, now a pediatrician.

Lillie - full of compassion, likes to help people. Graduated from Virginia Commonwealth and Hampton universities, taught special education and joined the Peace Corps. Now works with computers.

Melissa - her class valedictorian. Played basketball. A great chef, like her grandfather, who was a cook in the Navy. Thought she wanted to be a chemist like her dad and received a degree from Virginia Tech. Now an insurance agent.

George - easygoing, maybe because he had to be. The first boy born after three girls, so he didn't talk much as a kid. Kindhearted. Graduated from Norfolk State University and works as a kinesiotherapist.

Josiah - a people person. Has a good mind. Went to North Carolina A&T State University and majored in mechanical engineering, then Georgia Tech for his master's. Later, he switched careers. Graduated from U.Va. with a law degree and a master of business administration. Now works in finance.

And then there's Natalie, Lindsay's wife since 1962. He was valedictorian of their 1958 Union Kempsville High School class. She was salutatorian. He worked quietly in a lab. She became a nurse, talking up patients. She's always been the wise cracker to his straight man. The perfect team.

He went through cancer treatments last year and now hers is terminal. He has become the cook, the chauffeur, the maid. The everything. Like he's always been, his kids say.

He couldn't have been a good father without her, he says. She agrees. Then she looks at him, with a smile, and says, "Yeah. He's a good guy."

Denise Watson Batts, (757) 446-2504, denise.batts@pilotonline.com