Page 12
June 26, 2019
Harris Photography Safe, Clean and Sober Leader Dies
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of Miracles Club, located at North-
east Martin Luther King Boule-
vard near Skidmore Street, Booker
worked at the House of Umoja, a
residential gang intervention pro-
gram, and Stay Clean, Inc., an ad-
diction treatment facility.
Booker took the leadership po-
sition at Miracles Club in 2016,
where he oversaw its substantial
growth in the form of the non-prof-
it opening a secondary residential
location, Miracles Central in the
Lloyd District. His leadership was
needed after a previous executive
director, Herman Bryant, was sen-
tenced to three years in prison for
embezzlement.
Booker was himself a longtime,
card carrying member of the Mir-
acles Club and served as a board
member before then, during the
organization’s infancy in 1993. He
later grew into a mentorship role
for others in recovery.
Booker had known for years
the Miracles Club founders—Sam
Brown, Johnnie W. Gage, and John-
nie A. Gage, the latter of whom has
now taken up the mantel of interim
Miracles Club executive director.
In addition, Booker also owned
a historic family business, Courte-
sy Janitorial, and was a Deacon at
Vancouver Avenue Baptist Church.
Miracles board member and
friend of Booker Tim Wilson said
the many hats Booker wore is how
he was able to positively impact so
many people’s lives.
“[Y]ou got different people at
the church, you got different peo-
ple he’s dealing with up in his busi-
ness. And he was up there in all of
those. I mean he was just the man
in all of those,” Wilson said.
“He was just a loyal, great man
that left much too early,” Mark
Bradley, Booker’s childhood
friend, added.
Bradley and Booker’s fathers
were friends, Bradley explained,
having survived the 1948 Van-
port Flood together and later both
moved to northeast Portland,
where their sons were born and
raised. Bradley’s father owned a
paint shop while Booker’s father
owned the family’s janitorial sup-
ply store. Later, the sons took up
the respective businesses of their
fathers and helped each other out,
lending equipment to each other
for different jobs.
Bradley recalled that when his
mother died, the always sharply
dressed Booker took a new suit out
of his own wardrobe and gave it to
Bradley to wear during his mom’s
funeral.
“He was just that type of guy.
Had a heart of gold,” Bradley said.
Thomas Cooper, a chef at Heav-
enly Taste Café adjacent to the
Miracles Club, told the Portland
Observer Booker was his mentor
in recovery and had known him for
over two decades.
“He taught us how to live, pretty
much to live life…He was a pillar
in the community,” Cooper said.
Pastor Dwight Minnieweath-
er owns the Heavenly Taste Café,
which many Miracles Club mem-
bers frequent, though it is a differ-
ent business entity.
Minnieweather told the Port-
land Observer he still hasn’t really
grasped Booker’s passing.
“It’s still kind of hard for me to
come explain how I feel about it,”
Minnieweather said, adding that
the hole Booker left in the commu-
nity has left people “scattered.”
“He was doing a whole lot.”
Minnieweather, who is a special
events committee member of Mira-
cles Club, had worked with Booker
for different projects over the past
15 years.
“When Miracles was at this
emergency point, he was the man
who pulled us through the storm
and got everything back in order.”
Minnieweather said he hoped
Booker’s name could one day be
dedicated to a future project of
Miracles Club, like a library or
building.
“I just really think it’s important
for the word to get out to the peo-
ple of how important he was to our
community. I truly think that needs
to be driven home.”
Booker was in talks to open an
additional Miracles Center facility
across the street from their current
location, on Garfield Avenue and
Mason Street, Minnieweather said.
Like their previous two locations, it
would include housing and mixed
use facilities. A Miracles program
in Gresham was also in the works.
Michael Booker’s funeral is be-
ing planned for Vancouver Avenue
Baptist Church and a tentative date
is scheduled for July 10, McDon-
ald said.