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David Wilmot on an unexpected meeting at the home of his future inlaws that influenced his decision to go to law school~\n\n"When I went downstairs, I was blown away. Playing poker were the following: Thurgood Marshall, Wiley Branton, a young Vernon Jordan, Floyd McKissick. . . We only read about these folks in Jet Magazine or in Ebony. . .That influenced, inched me towards me thinking about law school."\n\nDavid Wilmot, Attorney | Businessman | Lobbyist | Activist and Andy Ockershausen, in studio interview\n\nAndy Ockershausen:This is Andy Ockershausen, and this is Our Town. I have a great opportunity for me and my knowledge, which then it makes our audience more knowledge, but to find out about a name that's been around Washington for years that's very famous but unknown, that's David Wilmot. David is an attorney, not a lawyer, an attorney. He's from a law firm Harmon & Wilmot. He's an expert in local government, corporate and commercial real estate development, promotion of minority and small business. David, you're involved in everything. Did I not know until today and hearing your name and knowing you for all these years, you were born in St. Martin?\nDavid Wilmot:\tYes, that is correct.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tJanice and I, I took her to St. Martin's two years ago. They had the terrible hurricane go through there.\nThe Early Years - Panama, Jamaica, and St. Martin\nDavid Wilmot:\tThat is absolutely correct. Growing up there, we had probably 10 or 12 hurricanes. Our homes are so well-built that they've always stood hurricanes. You go back to my grandparents and great-grandparents, those houses-\nAndy Ockershausen:\tYou're in the French part or the-\nDavid Wilmot:\tWe live on both sides.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tBoth sides.\nDavid Wilmot:\tWhen I was growing up, there were only 5,000 people on the entire island. It was primarily farming. Some time in the late '60s, we started moving towards tourism. It's one of the premier tourist destinations.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tI was on board of a National Associations of Broadcasting. We had our annual meeting in La Samanna. It just opened. In fact, they were still whitewashing part of it when we were there. That must've been in 1974 or something like that.\nDavid Wilmot:\tIt would've been around that time. That's absolutely correct, because when I was growing up, the only hotel we had was the Little Bay Hotel. We only had one hotel on the island. We had two guest houses, The Passing Gram was one of them, and Delito was the other.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tIn our island in the sun. It was a magnificent vacation. I'll never forget the airport, David. I'm sure it's still that way. I didn't think they'd get that airplane off the ground. It took off right over a mountain.\nDavid Wilmot:\tIt does.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tIs it still there today?\nDavid Wilmot:\tIt's still there today, and they haven't expanded the airport any longer. The new jets are capable of-\nAndy Ockershausen:\tThey can do it. Get off the ground easy enough.\nDavid Wilmot:\tGet off the ground quite easily.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tDavid, you're born and raised in the islands and you went to school. How in the world?\nDavid Wilmot:\tLet me correct one thing. I wasn't actually born in St. Martin. I need to share that with you. My parents and grandparents went to a place called Panama to work on the Panama Canal.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tIs that right?\nDavid Wilmot:\tMy father and his father and grandfather came from Jamaica to Panama. My mother and her family came from St. Martin to Panama. I was actually born in Panama in Gorgas Hospital on the canal zone.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tThat's the famous name, Gorgas, right?\nDavid Wilmot:\tExactly. Then raised between Panama until I was 12. My father died and then we went back to Jamaica for a brief period, and then to my mother's home in St. Martin. Then I came to the United States at age 17.\nAndy Ockershausen:\tWow.\nMoving to New York City as a Young Adult | The Black Dutchman