The Berklee Performance Center in Boston is an unlikely forum for a celebration of life for someone who has died. But Fletcher (Flash) Wiley, who lived between Boston and the Vineyard, lived a life that was punctuated with surprises, innovation, excitement and commitment. Approximately 1,000 people convened on March 7 at the Berklee to witness the perfect person to symbolize this seeming paradox.

Flash was walking history, beginning with his recruitment as the first Black football player, the academy’s first Fulbright Scholar and fifth Black graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. He was a founding partner in the largest minority law firm in New England at the time. He became the first Black chairman of the Boston Chamber of Commerce and national chairman of Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers.

But it was his love of basketball, music and politics that provided the lubrication for his extraordinary life.

I met Flash in the 1970’s in the Harvard Law School gymnasium. That led to over a 50-year relationship in basketball, business and community. Flash played basketball all over Boston, and also played at the Tisbury School on Williams street in Vineyard Haven for decades during the summer months with myself, L. Duane Jackson, Phil Hart, John Jenkins, Milton Benjamin, Mike Brown and so many others. We established our own Labor Day Tournament, the Soul Cup, which was the subject of hyperbole, controversy, hilarity and tradition. After the championship game we all met on the Inkwell Beach with champagne and told tall tales.

This era of Island basketball was shared with all in an exhibit at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum entitled The Soul Cup 1975-1995!

Flash loved politics, especially Democratic politics, and this was evident by the presence of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Sen. Ed Markey, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, Governors Deval Patrick, Bill Weld, Maura Healey and Mike Dukakis paying their respects to their fallen friend.

He was intimately involved with the presidential run of former Gov. Mike Dukakis in 1988, flying around the country to his hometown of Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and stops in between. There is very little doubt that had Governor Dukakis won the election we would have added Secretary of the United Air Force to Flash’s considerable accomplishments.

But it was the soothing voice of Boston Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley that opened up the service at Berklee, punctuating more intensely his love of urban politics. She represents Boston’s Roxbury neighborhoods as well as Cambridge, the city that hosts his dear old Harvard.

Flash invested in residential developments in Roxbury, invested in projects in the Seaport and raised funds for Roxbury institutions like Crispus Attucks Daycare and Dimock Health Center. He was an indefatigable advocate for economic development, narrowing the wealth gap and balancing income inequality, all goals shared by Congresswoman Pressley. Indeed, Bennie Wiley has been a member of the finance committee for the Pressley campaign since she announced for Congress. Every August the Wiley’s hosted a fundraiser for her at their West Tisbury cottage giving national exposure to this rising star in the Democratic Party.

The front cover of the program bulletin boasted the headline The Way You Do The Things You Do! This was the 1964 hit by The Temptations of the Motown era. Flash sang in France and over Europe when he traveled abroad as a Fulbright Scholar. And he sang at every available stage big or small the rest of his days on earth. He was a soul singer in every dimension. In fact, he hosted two concerts at Berklee raising money for his charities. So his final stage performance at Berklee was in many ways a re-enactment of his singing in years gone by. The audience was treated to videos of his singing between speeches. Flash was singing his way up Jacob’s ladder!

March 7, 2025 is also the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when 25-year-old John Lewis led some 600 people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where they were beaten by the state police.

Flash led his life trying to improve the lives of others. Each generation must run his or her race of life not only to benefit themselves but also human-kind. His last public appearance was in Oak Bluffs on Oct. 12 at the annual Inkwell picnic. He was able to wade through the throngs on the sidewalk to finally remind all that here was a man who, like John Lewis, knew that while the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, it does not bend by itself.

He will be missed both at Union Chapel and at the Charles Ogletree public forums, but he will be remembered anytime there is Motown music and a stage band.

May his soul rest in peace! November 29, 1942 — February 6, 2025.