A man of many words

Audley McLean and his wife, Millicent, pose for a photo at their On Top of the World home in Ocala, Fla. on Monday, February 5, 2024. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2024.

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Posted April 22, 2024 | By Eadie Sickler, Correspondent

From rural Jamaica to north America, to international locales, to current day Ocala, Audley McLean, 92, is living an incredible legacy.

 

The pages of his journey began at an early age and continue today. His extensive professional career began as a boy wrapping packages in a department store and progressed to success in the insurance industry, working as a manager in the research arena, in administration in a financial institution, and serving as an itinerant preacher and sought-after speaker on the subjects of diversity and change.

 

McLean’s unique insight and sensitivity to the word “diversity” in light of today’s demographics in the global workplace led him to develop a speaking seminar, which garnered much recognition and success. His multi-faceted talents also led him to being a Christian radio broadcaster and chef and entrepreneur, with his own recipes for delicious sauces labeled Jamaican Gourmet.

 

McLean was born in 1931 in Jamaica, the second child to a mother who was abandoned by her husband before he was born. Viola, his mother, who needed to work to support her children, left Audley with his loving maternal grandmother for the first five years of his life and moved to Kingston, Jamaica, about 60 miles away. She often visited Audley.

 

“Life for me began with my ‘Grandma,’ who was the second generation from slavery,” he said.

 

They lived in the countryside in Mandeville, Jamaica, with no running water or electricity. He remembers being cared for, but not having shoes all the time.

 

McLean’s first memories of his mother were that he loved her and her visits.

 

“I thought she was beautiful,” he recalled, “and she dressed nice.”

 

Something spoke to his young mind that she possessed qualities he admired and wanted. When he was 5, his mother returned to take him to live with her in Kingston and his life began to change.

 

Viola married Kenneth Weekes, who was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and was a famous cricket athlete in Jamaica. McLean has a picture of his stepfather, whom he became close to, shaking the hand of King George VI of England, Queen Elizabeth’s father.

 

“I was reaching out for a different life,” McLean shared. “I was not aware of the difference … not sure what it was. I was curious.”

 

At 13, a department store hired McLean as a “wrapper” of customer purchases. His work ethic, determination and foresight earned him promotion and position in his endeavors, which changed the trajectory of his life. The desire to make money was ingrained in his mind. It was post-World War II.

 

“At 14, I thought I was a man,” he offered.

 

McLean’s mother didn’t attend church, but “sent” Audley. He had older friends and felt they wouldn’t think it was “cool” for him to attend church. He would get dressed and go to his friends’ houses until church services were over.

 

“In January of 1947, things changed,” he remembered.

 

There was a big gospel tent in town, but he had no intention of having any part of it. His mother began attending the meetings and insisted that he attend. When he resisted, she told him he would either attend or leave home. He went to a meeting, afraid his friends would see him going there, but “something happened,” he related. “I was miserable that week. The next Sunday, I was dressed and ready to go to the meeting and Mother was shocked. On Jan. 27, 1947, at the crusade revival, I broke down and, crying like a baby, I accepted Christ. I was 15 years old and was baptized, the youngest of the 84 people baptized then.”

 

McLean had an eighth-grade education. He knew he needed training for the mission field he felt called to. He applied to Emmaus Bible College in Toronto, Canada, but was denied entrance “because of educational insufficiency.” A high school education is required before entering college, they explained. The college offered him a condition: “Write us a reason to accept you without academic credentials.” McLean boldly told them he could do anything their college graduates could do. The college accepted him with the condition that, in addition to the regular curriculum, he would get an American GED (general education diploma) and he agreed. Three years later, in 1955, he graduated from Emmaus Bible College.

 

His faith has been the undergirding element in his life and career paths ever since.

 

A strong desire

 

McLean returned to Kingston and opened a haberdashery, which was successful until the building owner sold the property. He secured a job in insurance, where he made good money, “but underneath was a desire to do the Lord’s work. Everything else became a means to an end,” he explained.

 

He was “commended” (the same as being ordained) into the ministry of the Plymouth Brethren, an independent religious organization and began preaching all over Jamaica, the Bahamas, Belize and elsewhere. He became a sought-after speaker.

 

In 1957, he married Norma, whom he met at church. Three-and-a-half years later, Norma tragically died in childbirth. Their daughter, Ruth, lived with her maternal grandmother in Jamaica for the first four years of her life. In October of 2023, commemorating the 60th anniversary of Norma’s death, McLean called on his profound writing talent to pen the compelling and gripping story of her death during a cesarean section operation. So candidly and eloquently written, even these many years later, the details draw the reader’s interest. To read the compelling work, titled “Room Number Five,” go to audleywrites.com

 

McLean later married Elaine and they brought Ruth to live with them. They moved to America, where their son Timothy was born. Elaine’s youngest brother, Philip, 7 years old at the time, joined the family there.

 

McLean worked as a missionary, primarily with individuals living in inner city housing projects.

 

“Life is different for people in inner cities. The attitude was blighted. The reality of racism divided the churches,” he offered. “That driving force … the inner-city … had been deprived of ‘breaking of the bread’ together.” They hadn’t learned to live harmoniously with other cultures, he stated.

 

On a speaking tour in Buffalo, New York, McLean “discovered a mission work there, with Otis Tillman, and fell in love with it.” He returned there about a year later and remained in that area for 35 years, “where I was stuck in the snow,” he said jokingly. While there, he worked with other volunteers with children in the inner city.

 

By 1980, McLean left the ministry and was divorced.

 

“I thought I was done with Christian work,” he said sadly. “I felt like a castaway. I paid a heavy price.”

 

He remained in the insurance business, “but my heart was in God’s work,” he lamented.

 

Taking to the airwaves

 

Eventually, McLean felt the Lord’s calling again into his life and said, “the Holy Spirit used circumstances and people to encourage me to believe it’s not over.”

 

He recalled being felt led to ministry work via the broadcasting industry.

 

“I had no training in that. I just started talking,” he said. He bought a half hour of time on a Buffalo radio station.

 

“It just came to me, and I knew. I just trusted God,” he added. “God opened one door after another with seemingly impossible opportunities. God, in spite of my failures, brought me back into His service. God opened His floodgates.”

 

While working as a manager of manpower development, he was offered a position as head of diversity and equal employment at a financial institution and later became the administrative vice president. He developed a training program on diversity and change that put him on the path to many more speaking and teaching opportunities.

 

As part of his seminar, titled “Diversity, A Quality Imperative,” he expounds on demographics in the workforce today, including attention to race, gender, disability and ethnicity, which can separate us from one another and the need and ability to join those forces to value the individual for the good of all. His teaching states that “migration continues to bring all the peoples of the world within our borders. Diversity has always been here. It forms the warp and the woof of the fabric of our population.”

 

He continues, “Diversity is a reality and institutions that gear themselves to deal with this reality in the face of a distinctly global economy will have positioned themselves to succeed. There’s nothing altruistic about valuing diversity. It is not a do-gooder approach to living. Acknowledging, embracing, and managing diversity is really good business.”

 

He expounds further that the efforts of government-enforced equal opportunity initiatives have produced varying degrees of effectiveness, but “valuing diversity is to espouse a culture whose practices recognize and utilize all its valuable human resources. Diversity is at the crossroads. We can embrace diversity and be successful or ignore it to our peril.”

 

Life in Ocala

 

In 1993, McLean was married again, to Beverly, who had two children. On the advice of friends, the couple moved to Ocala because of the good weather and inexpensive prices at the time. They were married 24 years when she passed away.

 

He and Beverly had known Dennis and Millicent Thomas for about 60 years, beginning in Jamaica.

 

“One night, Millie’s name came to me and startled me awake,” he recalled. “I called her. It seemed that is what God wanted me to do.”

 

He soon made the drive to Port St. Lucie to see Millie, who was widowed.

 

He and Millie were married on May 1, 2022. His children, Ruth and Philip, live in New York, with Timothy in Atlanta. Millie’s daughter, Yasmin, lives in Ocala, and her son, Kwesi, lives in Los Angeles. There are seven grandchildren between he and Millie.

 

Millie, 84, was an elementary school teacher for 40 years, teaching in Jamaica for five years, then in Ontario, Canada, for 35 years. Audley became an American citizen in 1974, and Millie in 2008. They live in the On Top of the World community in Ocala.

 

“God doesn’t have these neatly wrapped packages for us,” she shared. “I told God if He wanted me to, I would go into full-time ministry, but I wanted to be a teacher from when I was 6 years old. He has shown me that I could serve Him and impact children’s lives if I allow Him to do this through me. With His help. I brought the Gospel to many in my life.”

 

At the end of February, McLean retired from actively conducting several broadcasting endeavors. They continue, however, with Elgin Carelock, a local author, business strategist, educator, leadership coach and mentor, at the helm.

 

“The Shepherd” radio broadcast is on station 720 AM. A daily five-minute broadcast, “Words of Inspiration,” is aired at 2pm. A weekly program, “The Bible Speaks,” is aired Sundays at 9:45am. All of the programs may be heard at harvestinternational.org. The “Brick City Radio Words of Inspiration” podcast is aired at player.fm/series/brick-city-podcasts and on social media platforms.

 

To learn more about McLean, go to audleywrites.com