He was blind, but now he can see.

Gerry Mason was born legally blind and lived in an orphanage for a year during elementary school. Today, he is a highly successful lawyer, venture capitalist, mentor, volunteer, lover of life, and new chair of the State Bar of Michigan Representative Assembly.

“At age 55, I feel blessed,” he said.

He credits his success, in large part, to facing and overcoming adversity.

“I can still feel the sting of being handicapped and poor,” he said. “The question is, how to respond?

“I got out of the orphanage (St. Francis Home for Boys in Detroit), went to work, had a bunch of eye surgeries, and kept on working.”

The results speak for themselves.

TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN

“The practice of law, albeit very hard and stressful at times, has been good to me,” Mason said, noting that “if you are going to take, you have to give back.”

And so he does.

“As vice chairman of the Salvation Army Port Huron Citadel, it is my job to love people and give them hope,” he said. “So far, that is perhaps the best job ever.”

As chair of the Representative Assembly, Mason also wants to put a focus on giving back.

“My goals are to assist and teach young lawyers from disadvantaged backgrounds how to build a prosperous law practice, to encourage RA members and lawyers in general to do charity work such as Rotary or Salvation Army, to strengthen the RA by educating its members of its importance, and to increase RA participation,” he said. One way Mason plans to increase participation in the Representative Assembly is by asking all members to bring a guest who might be a potential RA member to one of the assembly’s biannual meetings.

Mason says helping young lawyers from disadvantaged backgrounds has always been a passion and priority because “if you help young lawyers and law students, the rest will flow.”

BLUES BROTHER

When Mason is not practicing law or giving back, he is enjoying life in a variety of ways.

“I love blues music, exercise, German beer, cigars, being outside in nature — preferably northern Michigan — and Michigan football,” he said. “For intellectual curiosity, I enjoy world affairs and politics. The Wall Street Journal and Journal of Foreign Affairs are brain candy to me.” Mason is also a history buff who was at Red Square on the 45th anniversary of the end of World War II. He also attended President George W. Bush’s final State of the Union address and met presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush; vice presidents Dan Quayle and Dick Cheney; and Secretary of State James Baker.

Mason, a proud member of the Colonial Woods Missionary Church family, also has a deep passion for music.

“In my blues life, I used to hang around backstage with B.B. King and Lonnie Brooks and do live radio blues broadcasts with legendary DJ Famous Coachman,” said Mason, who also plays guitar.

Finally, Mason pointed out that the original “Blues Brothers” movie is “perhaps the greatest movie ever made.”

Why?

“We are all in a musical, trying to find someone or something lost, putting the band back together,” he said. “And for many of us, [we’re] on a mission from God.”