Think you’re too poor to support charity? This man kept giving back even while homeless

It has become fashionable for some to question the work ethic, the integrity, and even the morality of those receiving government assistance.

America has already tried a War on Poverty, the thinking goes, and it failed. Generations of the poor are growing up enslaved by government checks and weighed down by sloth. The only solution: cut back government spending on them.

If you subscribe to that theory, you might have found Monday’s funeral for Alfred Peaslee Gorman educational. On paper, he was part of the problem. He was homeless and jobless for a long stretch. Charity workers say they helped him access food stamp benefits.

But 60 or so people who gathered to remember him Monday at the James Funeral Home in Huntersville described a man far more valuable than his circumstances suggested. Before he was homeless, he’d been an Army veteran, a Cub Scout leader, an electrician, an Air National Guard reservist. Friends called him a tall man with a big smile and even bigger feet.

Many of those who knew him earlier in life lost touch with him as he spiraled down into years of homelessness.

Others found him then, riding his bicycle along roads in Huntersville, or near the camp he’d set up in the woods. Even there, he still loved listening to National Public Radio and reading the daily newspaper, not to mention virtually any book he could get his hands on.

He struck up conservations with passersby, with neighbors near his campsite, with children and patrons at a nearby Chick-fil-A. He loaned people books and magazines to read; they bought him coffee or just chatted, taking away as much as they brought.

When a car hit and killed the 73-year-old nearly two weeks ago, he was no longer homeless, thanks to help from the Urban Ministry Center.

The Rev. Todd Marlin, one of many he’d befriended while homeless, officiated at his funeral. He played “Let it Be” by Gorman’s beloved Beatles and invited friends to share memories of him. A former co-worker recalled that Gorman had volunteered at a homeless shelter. His friend Gail Wellborn said she found check ledgers showing that he had been donating to homeless shelters even while living in the woods.

Wellborn, fearing he wouldn’t get the dignity of a decent burial, led an effort that raised more than $4,400. But Monday’s service showed that he’d already demonstrated his dignity through the lives he touched.

He proved that anyone can add value to this world, no matter how high or low their station. People have inherent value, regardless of whether they call a penthouse or a camp site home.

In an era when we worship “job creators” and demean a whole segment of society as worthless “takers,” his life stands as a valuable reminder of that truth.

This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 6:53 PM with the headline "Think you’re too poor to support charity? This man kept giving back even while homeless."