There are people, as we go through life, who consistently make us feel good just for having known them. Carol Pretlow was such a person.

Make that Dr. Carol Pretlow. She earned and deserved the deference, for Carol spent 30 years as a distinguished professor of political science at Norfolk State University, and during those years earned a national reputation as an expert on international politics, particularly the confusing, critical and ever-changing environment in the Middle East.

She organized and headed a team of educators — a self-described “think tank” — focused on strategic and global studies and, as her reputation grew, became a go-to source of background for journalists and others attempting to understand what was happening in the world’s hot spots. 

As an African American who grew up in the waning days of Jim Crow, she had a level-headed perspective of race relations, and was a regular commentator on WHRV’s “Another View,” which weekly features a Black perspective of modern life.

Her death on Christmas Eve at age 77 undoubtedly leaves a void at Norfolk State University, which was her professional home for the bulk of her adult life, but it leaves a void as well here in Smithfield, her hometown and her spiritual home. 

For those of us whose paths crossed Carol’s at various times and for various reasons over the decades, memories of this unique individual will always bring a smile. She was a free spirit if ever there was one. Her interests were eclectic, but always led her to further educate herself, a family trait passed down by generations of Pretlows, for she was the proud offspring of one of Isle of Wight’s most prominent African American families.

Her grandfather, Kenneth Pretlow, was one of the driving forces behind creation of the Isle of Wight Training School, which later became Westside High and most recently Westside Elementary School. Her mother, Vivian Pretlow, was a beloved career teacher who left no doubt in Carol’s mind that learning was a lifelong endeavor. 

The Pretlows understood the role that education played and continues to play in closing society’s opportunity gap for African Americans. In an interview with The Smithfield Times a decade ago, Carol said her mother urged her to continue teaching at Norfolk State because of the impact she could have.

“Part of my dream,” Carol quoted her as saying, “is continuing through you. Somebody will step on your shoulders, and that’s how it goes.”

I suspect numerous young people have.

I personally knew her as an inquisitive, innovative person, always eager to try something new. We first met in the summer of 1977. She walked into The Smithfield Times office, a confident and outgoing 30-year-old, and told me she wanted to write fashion columns for the paper. 

My idea of fashion is a pair of khaki pants and a blue, button-down shirt. And that’s my knowledge of men’s fashions. I know even less about women’s, and couldn’t imagine how a fashion columnist might enhance a tiny weekly paper like The Smithfield Times.

Carol proceeded to educate me as well as our readers in the months following that meeting. Writing something we labeled “Fashion Notes and Quotes,” she introduced the community to fashion trends and fads. 

But she didn’t stop there. (Did I mention she was irrepressible?) Within a year after beginning her work at the paper, she had convinced the Smithfield High School Band Boosters that they could raise funds for the band by hosting a fashion show. Carol talked nearly every business in Smithfield, from department stores to hardware stores, into taking part in some way and, in May 1978, the community hosted its first fashion show.

Consciously or coincidentally, she had black and white residents working together to organize the event and to model clothes. Her mission to educate the community managed to bridge the racial divide regularly, and that was in the 1970s, when bridges were often difficult to build. 

Fashion shows became annual events for some years after that first one, and were always imprinted with Carol’s talented guidance.

When she walked into our office, she had already completed courses at the John Powers School of Modeling and the Barbizon School of Fashion Marketing. She saw the column as a way to introduce herself, and it worked. Within a couple of years, she signed on with Paul D. Camp Community College to teach an “introduction to modeling” course.

Her eclectic tastes as well as her desire to educate others then led her to apply in 1983 for and be accepted as the Isle of Wight Litter Control coordinator, working with county schools to introduce students to recycling and other ways of combatting litter.

A few months later, Carol was named coordinator of the county’s 350th anniversary and quickly put together a kickoff program for that event. She didn’t finish that job because she had also applied for admission to the Antioch Law School in Washington, D.C., and got accepted.

Carol didn’t become a lawyer, but study at Antioch set her on her ultimate path, international political science, for which she would in time receive her doctorate degree and begin her celebrated career at Norfolk State.

Carol never lost touch with her roots, however. She grew up in Brown’s A.M.E. Church, her family’s spiritual home, and returned to the church as other local organizations numerous times as a guest speaker for various events.

In 2015, she came home to participate in a discussion of race relations sponsored by the NAACP, the town and the newspaper. That, I believe, was the last time I saw Carol, and we delighted in talking about those early days when she tried to teach me something about fashion. We both concluded she had better luck with our readers than with me. 

There have been a number of prominent families in Smithfield and Isle of Wight, none more so than the Pretlows. Carol upheld the family’s tradition of service, and along the way, enjoyed life to its fullest. We can all learn something from that as we celebrate her life’s work.

 

John Edwards is publisher emeritus of The Smithfield Times. His email address is j.branchedwards@gmail.com.