Elmer Smith: How the Big Brother magic cuts both ways

LEN MERSON paused thoughtfully when I asked what made him decide 40 years ago to become a big brother to a "knucklehead."

"I can tell you," said Allan Lewin, the self-described former knucklehead.

"A little kid is a great chick magnet."

"Yeah, it was either him or a puppy," Merson agreed.

It's a routine, one of a thousand things they have done together in a 40-year relationship that has had a profound effect on both of their lives.

"He and my daughter are the two people that I trust most in the world," Merson said.

"I remember writing a paper my first year in college about the people who influenced me," Lewin said. "Len was one of the three who mattered most."

Lewin and Merson are Exhibit A in the case Big Brothers/Big Sisters likes to make for mentoring. Lewin, vice president for licensing of the Lee's Hoagie House chain, and Merson, who runs an information-technology business in California and Hawaii, agree that neither would be who he is today without the other.

"He is a significant investor in my business," Merson said of his "little" brother.

"I go to him for business advice all the time," Lewin said.

It was more than anyone imagined 40 years ago when Lewin's mother took him to Big Brothers/Big Sisters to see if they could find a man to hang out with him a couple of times a month.

"My parents were divorced," Lewin recalled. "My mother was wise enough to know that I needed a male role model.

"I just figured I'd meet someone who would take me places."

That's about all any young person lucky enough to meet a mentor through the program expects. If it were nothing more than that, it would still serve a purpose for kids like Allan from single-parent homes.

But Big Brothers/Big Sisters released a study last month that reveals a much more tangible benefit of their mentorship matches.

According to results of the cross-sectional study by Harris Interactive, adults who were mentored as children were 75 percent more likely to have graduated from college, and 39 percent more likely to earn at least $75,000 a year than peers who had similar backgrounds.

More than half the former "littles" who took part in the study grew up in single-parent homes with less than average incomes. About two-thirds reported that they had achieved greater success than children they grew up with who had no mentors.

The study simply lays out in statistical terms what we know intuitively: A child who has the benefit of a relationship with a responsible adult is far more likely to succeed than if he didn't have it.

But, in Philadelphia, hundreds of children, particularly minority boys, can't find one. The local chapter had to stop taking applications last year despite a growing need.

Matches were easier to make when Len met Allan. Len felt the need even more than Allan did.

"I had high expectations." Len said. "The results were even better. He was a great kid, mellow, insightful, interested in everything I showed him."

What really made it work, they agree, was a third party, Len's horse "Navajo."

"He got involved in everything," Len said. "He cleaned the stables with me; we didn't just ride.

But Allan didn't realize how close they had become until Allan fell and broke his collar bone.

"Len was at the hospital in minutes," Allan said. "That was surprising."

It all should have ended two years later when the company Len worked for transferred him to San Diego and Hawaii. But he and Allan spent summers together in Hawaii even after Len became a mentor to a boy from the projects in Honolulu.

"I had this Jewish kid from the city and a Hawaiian boy from the projects," Len said. "They got along great. Both great kids.

The three of them still get together a few times a year.

Allan may not be the chick magnet he once was. But he's a better brother than Len ever imagined.

Send e-mail to smithel@phillynews.com or call 215-854-2512. For recent columns: http://go.philly.com/smith