Remembering Attorney Cleota Proctor Wilbekin

The National Bar Association mourns the loss of Dr. Cleota Proctor Wilbekin, an esteemed attorney and historian.

Dr. Wilbekin was born in Des Moines, Iowa five years after the National Bar Association was founded.  She knew the family from which Gertrude E. Rush came. She knew the values, the character, the spirit of the close knit community of African-Americans in Des Moines; and she knew Gertrude E. Rush.

Following the value of education, instilled by her parents and her environment, Dr. Wilbekin attended the following:  North Des Moines High School, Drake Preparatory Fine Arts School, Drake University, the University of Iowa,  Columbia University, University of Cincinnati Law School, University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Northwestern University, and National Judicial College.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, a Ph.D. in Sociology and an LL.B in Law. Thus, Dr. Wilbekin prepared for everything; and she excelled in everything she pursued.

Dr. Wilbekin has had careers and passions as a social worker, a lawyer, an active volunteer with social and service organizations, and as an artist. Certainly her greatest passion is as a wife to her (now deceased) husband Attorney Harvey E. Wilbekin, and mother to her sons Emil Kraig Wilbekin, M.S. Editor of ESSENCE.com and Erik Jon Wilbekin, an attorney in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  A member of numerous organizations, Dr. Wilbekin includes among them Alpha Kappa Alpha (Chapter Legal Agent and Life Member), NAACP, Links, Inc., National Bar Association (Life Member), Black Lawyers of Cincinnati, National Association of Bench and Bar Spouses, Inc. (President 1981 and 1982; Legal Counsel – 1983 to Present), NABBS Foundation (President  1988 to Present), and Friends of Amistad (President 1987 – 1995).

Mrs. Wilbekin’s employment endeavors include social work for the City of Des Moines, the Hamilton County Welfare Department and as District Director of Hearings and Appeals at the State of Ohio Department of Human Services. For a while she was a law clerk in the family business, Wilbekin Law Office.

Dr. Wilbekin’s cultural aesthetic pursuits include having been Organist and Choir Director at Immanuel Lutheran Church from 1955 to the present. Additionally, Dr. Wilbekin is a Master Quilter. She has been quilting since age six and is a member of  Women of Color Quilters Network. Her quilts have been displayed nationally and internationally. She is very proud of having been part of “Quilts for Obama: An Exhibition Celebrating the Inauguration of our 44th President” sponsored by the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.  Her quilts are currently in four exhibitions. One piece, a lace robe that has toured for three years, is now in the permanent collection in the  Anacostia Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.

The record of Dr. Wilbekin’s work for the National Bar Association as Historian is beyond comparison.  She has collected the Association’s archives and ensured their preservation at the  Des Moines, Iowa Public Library, Drake University Law School Library and the Amistad Research Center. In 2009 Cleota Proctor Wilbekin was named NBA Historian Emerita.

Dr. Wilbekin’s life work is as unique, rich and varied as the beautiful quilts that she so carefully stitches together.  The tapestry of her life is that of a woman who accepted no barriers, turned challenges in to successes and turned the ordinary into the extraordinary.   Just as the odd bit of fabric becomes a key corner of a quilt, the tiniest happening can become an important part of the larger history of our beloved NBA.  Dr. Wilbekin recognized this, treasured every bit of our history, discarded none and thus the history of the NBA is not just preserved but beautifully stitched together for all to know, enjoy and share.

The NBA sends sincere condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Cleota Proctor Wilbekin.

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