Kellee Murrell

Howard Earl Wilkinson, a lifelong Yonkers resident who taught in the city's public schools, died Friday at St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers. He was 44.

Mr. Wilkinson was born July 6, 1949, to Earl and Virginia Couch Wilkinson. He attended city schools and graduated from Roosevelt High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from Wagner College on Staten Island and a master's degree from the City College of New York.

A Yonkers school district employee since Jan. 24, 1972, Mr. Wilkinson taught third and fourth grade at the former School 19 for 18 years.

In 1988, he moved to the Enrico Fermi School for the Performing Arts, where he taught sixth grade. He was honored by his Fermi pupils last year during Black History Month.

Mr. Wilkinson also served as an assistant football coach at Roosevelt High School. Edward DeFino, principal at Fermi, recalled Mr. Wilkinson as someone whose school day did not end at 3 p.m. He said Mr. Wilkinson often spoke to pupils on the telephone from home and was extremely well-liked by pupils and staff.

Mr. Wilkinson was a past president of the Runyon Heights Improvement Association and the Big Brother-Big Sister Organization in Yonkers. He also was a member of the Yonkers Federation of Teachers and the Eagle Scouts. Mr. Wilkinson was a parishioner of the Metropolitan AME Zion Church in Yonkers. He was a former Sunday school teacher. He married Velma Thomas on June 30, 1973. The couple later divorced.

Mr. Wilkinson is survived by his mother of Yonkers; three daughters, Shervah, Kellee and Kathleen Wilkinson, all of the Bronx; and a brother, Lawrence Wilkinson of Seattle.

Arrangements are being handled by the Brooks Memorial Home in Yonkers.

Mount Vernon Argus (White Plains, New York, USA) Tue, Jan 04, 1994 ·Page 10