NORVEL. By Kenneth Conklin. Self published. 359 pages. $26.99.
Norvel Lee, a big man with a big heart, came out of the hills of northern Botetourt County to win a boxing match at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, and a landmark desegregation case before the State Supreme Court.
Kenneth Conklin, a retired technology writer, also from Botetourt, tells Leeâs story in a fictional version of many events in the life of a man who proudly carried his African American heritage from a farm on Mill Creek near Gala to Howard University, the Army Air Corps, international boxing circles and civic leadership in the Washington area.