Clem Richardson
Father and son are (college) class act
Friday, August 3rd 2007, 4:00 AM
Clem Richardson: Teddy Wilson wanted to make sure his son, Dzhantam (pronounced Jan-Tom) Warren, did well in college. So he enrolled with him." name=storyDesc>
Teddy Wilson wanted to make sure his son, Dzhantam (pronounced Jan-Tom) Warren, did well in college.
So he enrolled with him.
If he can get one last paper done, Wilson, 52, will graduate from LaGuardia Community College this month with a degree in Web programming.
Warren will have to wait until December or sometime next year to claim his multimedia design degree, delayed by two required courses and his Army National Guard unit's expected deployment to Afghanistan later this year.
Both are honor students, with Dad's 3.88 grade-point average a whisker ahead of Warren's, which is 3.83.
That comparison implies a competition the Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, residents (they have separate apartments) insist simply does not exist.
"We studied together all the time," said Warren. "He helped me with things I didn't understand, and I helped him."
"We were each other's main asset," Wilson said. "He taught me multimedia designing, and I taught him Web programming. It's like we both got two degrees at the same time."
The two are as close as they seem. Even though Wilson is long divorced from Warren's mother, their lives have often mirrored each others: Both are freelance graphic designers who have been drawing since they were kids.
Both enlisted in the military right out of high school.
In person, they're both quiet, studious men with an enviable calm about them.
Both got it from their fathers.
But it started with Wilson's dad, the late John Wilson, a maintenance engineer with the Otis Elevator Co., who noticed his son's artistic bent early.
"I had a skill to draw, and my father nurtured that," he said. "He would bring scrap paper from the job for me to draw on."
John Wilson also impressed on his son the importance of education, and of spending time with and listening to your children, things Teddy Wilson said he took to heart and made sure to do with all four of his children, even after he divorced.
"We sit and talk all the time," he said. "We talk about all kinds of things. "
Looking at his son, he adds, "I enjoy his company."
Wilson grew up in Bed-Stuy. He said the family - seven children altogether, but he grew up with four brothers - knew hard times firsthand.
"When my father and mother separated, things just got real tough," he said. "I got a scholarship to the Brooklyn Museum Art School, but I wasn't able to go because we couldn't afford to get me a coat. Things were just tough. But that was okay, because Mom was doing the best she could at the time."
He instead attended the LaGuardia School of the Performing Arts - he plays guitar and once had a recording studio in his home - but joined the Army in 1972 before graduating.
"I volunteered because I was stupid," Wilson said. "I was a little ghetto kid; I couldn't see what I was going to do with my future. I had a little artistic talent that was good for the neighborhood, but so what? I decided to join the Army to see if I could do something greater with my talent."
Wilson's enlistment took him to Fort Eustis, Va., and then to Okinawa, Japan, for 18 months.
"I loved Japan," he said. "I played in the hottest band in Okinawa, all military guys."
After his enlistment ended in 1975, Wilson eventually returned to the city and followed his dream of going to college. He enrolled in a technical school - and quickly found he hated his major, accounting.
He and the woman he was living with both enrolled in school. When the money ran short, they decided she would get her degree and he would drop out. He returned to his recording studio, and also began freelance drafting and graphic design.
It would be 2005 before he could get back to school.
Warren inherited his father's drawing genes.
"All I did was draw," he said. "I would draw on little scraps of paper, and I would use my mother's eyeliner if I couldn't find a pencil or pen."
Though he grew up with his mother, Cassandra LeVant, Warren said, "My parents made sure we were still a family. We did things as a family. So I was always close to my father."
Warren went to LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts as well, majoring in art. He graduated in 1998. Like his father, he joined the service right out of school, only in his case it was the Army National Guard. If his face looks familiar, it might be that you saw him patrolling Grand Central Terminal or Penn Station after 9/11.
Like his father, he was a freelance graphic artist. And like him, Warren saw that opportunities for advancement in the field would be limited as long as he did not have a degree.
When he mentioned to his father that he was going back, and had found the perfect program at LaGuardia, Wilson decided to enroll as well.
He and his own son make a good team.
"We once started working on a three-dimensional modeling project at 9 a.m. We studied through that day, that night and into the next day," he said. "We have our disagreements, but we work well together."
Still single, Warren said he hopes to do animation and video design after graduation.
"Maybe I'll start my own company," he said.
"You better hire me!" said his father.
Father and son are (college) class act
Friday, August 3rd 2007, 4:00 AM
Clem Richardson: Teddy Wilson wanted to make sure his son, Dzhantam (pronounced Jan-Tom) Warren, did well in college. So he enrolled with him." name=storyDesc>
Teddy Wilson wanted to make sure his son, Dzhantam (pronounced Jan-Tom) Warren, did well in college.
So he enrolled with him.
If he can get one last paper done, Wilson, 52, will graduate from LaGuardia Community College this month with a degree in Web programming.
Warren will have to wait until December or sometime next year to claim his multimedia design degree, delayed by two required courses and his Army National Guard unit's expected deployment to Afghanistan later this year.
Both are honor students, with Dad's 3.88 grade-point average a whisker ahead of Warren's, which is 3.83.
That comparison implies a competition the Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, residents (they have separate apartments) insist simply does not exist.
"We studied together all the time," said Warren. "He helped me with things I didn't understand, and I helped him."
"We were each other's main asset," Wilson said. "He taught me multimedia designing, and I taught him Web programming. It's like we both got two degrees at the same time."
The two are as close as they seem. Even though Wilson is long divorced from Warren's mother, their lives have often mirrored each others: Both are freelance graphic designers who have been drawing since they were kids.
Both enlisted in the military right out of high school.
In person, they're both quiet, studious men with an enviable calm about them.
Both got it from their fathers.
But it started with Wilson's dad, the late John Wilson, a maintenance engineer with the Otis Elevator Co., who noticed his son's artistic bent early.
"I had a skill to draw, and my father nurtured that," he said. "He would bring scrap paper from the job for me to draw on."
John Wilson also impressed on his son the importance of education, and of spending time with and listening to your children, things Teddy Wilson said he took to heart and made sure to do with all four of his children, even after he divorced.
"We sit and talk all the time," he said. "We talk about all kinds of things. "
Looking at his son, he adds, "I enjoy his company."
Wilson grew up in Bed-Stuy. He said the family - seven children altogether, but he grew up with four brothers - knew hard times firsthand.
"When my father and mother separated, things just got real tough," he said. "I got a scholarship to the Brooklyn Museum Art School, but I wasn't able to go because we couldn't afford to get me a coat. Things were just tough. But that was okay, because Mom was doing the best she could at the time."
He instead attended the LaGuardia School of the Performing Arts - he plays guitar and once had a recording studio in his home - but joined the Army in 1972 before graduating.
"I volunteered because I was stupid," Wilson said. "I was a little ghetto kid; I couldn't see what I was going to do with my future. I had a little artistic talent that was good for the neighborhood, but so what? I decided to join the Army to see if I could do something greater with my talent."
Wilson's enlistment took him to Fort Eustis, Va., and then to Okinawa, Japan, for 18 months.
"I loved Japan," he said. "I played in the hottest band in Okinawa, all military guys."
After his enlistment ended in 1975, Wilson eventually returned to the city and followed his dream of going to college. He enrolled in a technical school - and quickly found he hated his major, accounting.
He and the woman he was living with both enrolled in school. When the money ran short, they decided she would get her degree and he would drop out. He returned to his recording studio, and also began freelance drafting and graphic design.
It would be 2005 before he could get back to school.
Warren inherited his father's drawing genes.
"All I did was draw," he said. "I would draw on little scraps of paper, and I would use my mother's eyeliner if I couldn't find a pencil or pen."
Though he grew up with his mother, Cassandra LeVant, Warren said, "My parents made sure we were still a family. We did things as a family. So I was always close to my father."
Warren went to LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts as well, majoring in art. He graduated in 1998. Like his father, he joined the service right out of school, only in his case it was the Army National Guard. If his face looks familiar, it might be that you saw him patrolling Grand Central Terminal or Penn Station after 9/11.
Like his father, he was a freelance graphic artist. And like him, Warren saw that opportunities for advancement in the field would be limited as long as he did not have a degree.
When he mentioned to his father that he was going back, and had found the perfect program at LaGuardia, Wilson decided to enroll as well.
He and his own son make a good team.
"We once started working on a three-dimensional modeling project at 9 a.m. We studied through that day, that night and into the next day," he said. "We have our disagreements, but we work well together."
Still single, Warren said he hopes to do animation and video design after graduation.
"Maybe I'll start my own company," he said.
"You better hire me!" said his father.
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