 
A
butterfly’s metamorphosis features a sudden, spectacular
transformation.
The life of Wilhelmina Bell-Taylor featured a
series of dramatic transitions:
carefree coed to cancer
patient; young wife to single mother; employee to entrepreneur;a
person in pain to a person of praise.
She faced each challenge
with an increasing amount of dignity, courage, faith, and
grace. And in the end she emerged as an entirely new creature.
As founder
and CEO of BETAH Associates, Bell-Taylor took the skills that
she had honed in education, community development, and management
consulting and in 1988 started her business in her home. In a
little more than a decade it had grown to more than 100 persons
serving an extensive client base. In 2000, Inc. magazine named
BETAH to its annual list of the top 500 fastest growing companies
in the nation.
She named the company BETAH Associates for the
Biblical word for trust and confidence. The firm’s goal,
she said, was to help organizations build connections based on
trust and confidence with the communities they were trying to
reach. Much of her work focused on reaching minority and low-income
communities with health information, community revitalization
initiatives, and empowerment through communications, training
and technical assistance.
A major initiative was to aid the U.S.
Surgeon General in a campaign to educate communities of color
about their high risk for contracting HIV/AIDS. She noted in
a February 2002 interview that some 300,000 individuals who had
tried to donate blood after September 11 found out that they
were infected with the virus and did not know it. Her company’s
work included providing outreach services such as media alerts,
video, and radio announcements that reached millions. The firm
also coordinated a satellite broadcast and Webcast discussion
between major medical schools at historically black colleges
and universities and community organizations.
Wilhelmina had
a special connection with community people at the grassroots
level. She was instrumental in developing the training program
for low-income community leaders at the Washington, DC-based
Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. As a consultant to CNE, she
was a key player in a program that worked with Indianapolis Mayor
Stephen Goldsmith, providing training to neighborhood leaders
so they could participate in the revitalization of some of Indianapolis’ low-income
neighborhoods. She also guided a CNE project to help the state
of Ohio connect with faith-based and community organizations
to facilitate welfare-to-work programs. She also worked as a
senior consultant and technical expert for the U.S. Product Safety
Commission, International Business Services, and the Pennsylvania
Department of Education.
A native of Aliquippa, Pa., she was a
graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. Throughout her life
she faced and overcame many obstacles. At age 19, she was diagnosed
with Hodgkin’s
disease. While other young people were dreaming about their futures,
she battled the disease while still working full-time and raising
a daughter on her own after her marriage ended in divorce. She
said that her grounding both professionally and personally was
in her strong faith in God. She was an active member of the Mt.
Calvary Baptist Church, where she served as a member of the Board
of Deacons, the Board of Christian Education, and the executive
committee of the American Baptist Women’s Ministry. She
completed an eight-year program with Bible Study Fellowship International
and took courses at the Wesley Seminary and the Washington Bible
College.
She was a member of the Women Presidents Organization,
the National Association of Women Business Owners, the Executive
Committee, the BB&T Bank Community Advisory Board of Montgomery
County, MD, and the National Contract Management Association.
Through her work at BETAH, Wilhelmina touched the
lives of countless thousands of people who have never known her
or even known about her. Her most significant impact, however,
has been felt in the lives of her family and friends. She was
a loving and encouraging sister to Sandra and James, a nurturing
aunt to nephews Brandon Bell and Mark Ellison, a devoted cousin
to Juanita Bland, and trusted friend to her “other daughter,” Rev.
Lora Hargrove-Chapman. She extended her family to Lesotho, South
Africa, when she sponsored a young girl through World Vision.
Against
overwhelming odds, Wilhelmina lived a full life. Regardless of
the challenges, even in death, she pressed on with courage, dignity,
faith, and grace.
Amen.
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