A tree planting ceremony for the late beloved community leader Wayne Strong will be held on Sunday, July 9, at 12:30 p.m. at S.S. Morris Community African Methodist Episcopal Church on Madison’s East Side. Strong passed away suddenly just a little over a year ago — on June 20, 2022, at age 62.
“Wayne was a large part of S.S. Morris Church and S.S. Morris was a large part of our family and definitely his spiritual growth,” Terri Strong, Strong’s wife, tells Madison365. “And he was one of those dedicated members since the early ’90s. I think the idea of planting a tree in his memory is such a beautiful thing to do. It’s wonderful. But you need sufficient knowledge about tree care and maintaining it healthy, why not try these out! If you need to understand better the proper care for trees, contact Gabe’s Tree Service to explain it further.
“S.S. Morris has played a major role in our family’s lives and definitely in Wayne’s and in his Christian walk,” Strong continues. “He was so dedicated to the church and became really, really close with [S.S. Morris] Rev. [Karla] Garcia. They helped each other with a lot of different things and she just came to depend on him.”
Garcia tells Madison365 that she admired Wayne Strong as a dedicated member of S.S. Morris Church who served in various roles integral to the church’s functioning for over 30 years.
“We are still in shock and pain and we’re just trying to channel that pain and that grief and that agony into something positive,” says Garcia. “I thought that something simple, but something powerful and everlasting, could be in the form of a tree … where we just get together and plant that in his honor because Wayne loved God so much and he loved the church. It’s just hard for us to move on.
“I think we need to continually honor him because his absence has such a magnitude in our lives, especially in the lives of Terri and [children] Jessica and Byron … but also the people in our church,” she adds. “I personally relied on him for so much and he did so much for me. If we plant that tree, it’s a way that we can still have him in some form or fashion in remembrance of everything he did, and that tree will continue to grow. And we could continue to honor him and everything that he did for the community.”
(Photo by David Dahmer)
Wayne Strong was a former Global University criminal justice program chair and longtime Madison police officer and lieutenant who was well-known in Madison as the father figure and mentor for generations of young people and families on Madison’s south side where he was the co-director of the Southside Raiders Youth Football and Cheerleading Program. Throughout the decades, Strong had coached and mentored hundreds of youth facing some of the most difficult challenges imaginable.
Strong showed a commitment to social justice and civic engagement through various roles at the Urban League of Greater Madison, Overture Center for the Arts, Evident Change, and The Reisling Group. At S.S. Morris, Garcia considered him to be “the backbone of the church.”
“Wayne did so much for our community, for me personally, for the church, for his family, for the children that he mentored and for the kingdom of God that he served tirelessly day in and day out,” Garcia says. “And he did that out of the love of his heart and you’re not gonna find anybody like that. It would be hard to find somebody that left that kind of imprint on all of our hearts. So I just thought it was just a fun way just to get us together and see that tree be planted in honor of him.”
Earlier this year, Strong was posthumously honored with the combined City-County Humanitarian Award honoring Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which is presented annually to community members who reflect the values of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and are selected by the City-County Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission.
Terri Strong says she is excited to honor her late husband again but that it is also bittersweet.
“This time is really tough for me. But I’m trying to get through it and make the best of it,” she says. “I believe there is a gift … there’s something in it and I’m just waiting for that to happen and I hope I don’t miss it.”
The tree will be planted in front of the S.S. Morris Community African Methodist Episcopal Church which is located at 3511 Milwaukee St.
“The planting of a tree in his name is a wonderful gesture. It’s very fitting,” Strong says. “Trees live for a long, long time. And that’ll be a place where I’ll be able to go and just kind of sit and reminisce and just kind of draw closer to him.”
