By Jacob Ervin, Senior Reporter
A Northwestern alumnus has published a new book that aims to teach children about forgotten history while also teaching them to dream big.
The book was written by Willie Spears, who graduated from Northwestern in 2000 with a degree in mass communication.
While at Northwestern, Spears played receiver for the football team and scored the game-winning touchdown for the Rangers in the 1999 NAIA championship.
Following his time at Northwestern, Spears became an educator and coach for the next 20 years before transitioning into a full-time career as a motivational speaker and author. He writes a weekly column for The News.
Spears credits his time at Northwestern for enabling him to pursue his career.
“Northwestern helped shape me to be comfortable and competent when it comes to communication, and this book is a representation of the things I learned at Northwestern,” Spears said.
The book, “George and Hawk’s Big Adventure – with Big Dreams,” is a historical fictional story of George and Hawk. The two are based on the real historical figures of George Mortimer West and Narcisco “Hawk” Massalina. Spears, who is Massalina’s great-grandson, wrote the book to teach children about the not widely known friendship between Mortimer and Massalina.
“My grandmother would talk about [Massalina], and no one wrote anything down,” Spears said. “No one recorded them talking about it. We did a bad job keeping up with that history. So, I thought it would be great to write that history down for children, so children would grow up with that knowledge of that local history.”
West and Massalina both lived through the Civil War and were crucial to the creation of modern-day Panama City, Florida.
The two lifelong friends lived extraordinary lives, Spears said. They both achieved several accomplishments and had multiple occupations.
West is considered the founding father of Panama City and is credited with the founding of multiple newspapers in the area.
He also performed many different jobs throughout his life such as being a writer, railroader, attorney, photographer and economist.
Massalina is credited as a pioneer in the settling of St. Andrews Bay.
He worked as a ship builder, carpenter, fisherman and was a preacher. Massalina also served in the Civil War for both the Confederacy and the United States.
Spears uses the lives of West and Massalina to illustrate that attaining big accomplishments is not unrealistic and to encourage children not to limit themselves.
“The book takes place as a fictional book, of course, about them as little children, but in real life, they accomplished all of these things, and these things are crazy,” Spears said. “So, the book tells us, ‘Don’t listen to the adults who have a limited way of thinking. Dream big.’”
This is the 14th book Spears has written. It’s the first entry into what Spears expects to be a series of five books featuring George and Hawk that will cover a variety of life lessons for children using the characters.
Spears’ book is available for purchase on his website, www.willespears.com, and through Amazon.