Book Release: Mr. Secretary: From the Potato Fields to the White House

Wilbert Bryant, a man of achievement himself, recalled his first meeting with former president George W. Bush. Bush was Texas governor then, traveling north with a notable entourage as he pondered a presidential run.

“I saw this guy and all these guys surrounding him with ten-gallon hats. They were Texas Rangers,” Bryant told his standing-room-only audience at Captain Avery Museum.

“I said, so you’re Gov. Bush. He said ‘Yes, I’m George Bush.'  I said, I’m Wil Bryant, Virginia secretary of education. Why do you have all these guys with these damn big hats? You don’t need them here in Richmond.”

The occasion was the book launch of Mr. Secretary: From the Potato Fields to the White House, authored by Bryant with Julie Wakeman-Linn. The book is published by New Bay Books. It is available here and where you buy your books online.

Wakeman-Linn, an author and writing professor, introduced Bryant, noting that the their book was three years in the making.

Bryant and Wakeman-Linn added to this year’s list of authors appearing at Captain Avery Museum’s Winter Luncheon Series. The 2026 series concludes Wednesday, March 18, with Julianne Bethea and Isaac Clinton discussing Columbia Beach’s evolution as a historically black community. Tickets are available here.

Bryant’s story is the saga of rising to prominence out of poverty and the racism of an era that spawned ugliness in his native Florida.

At his book launch, Bryant recalled his early days picking potatoes — hence the book title — and a frightening episode when he and his family survived gunfire from the KKK.

Bryant’s memoir also offers stories from his rise in the military to the rank of colonel, including his service in Vietnam, Korea and England, and his path to the heights of education policy in Virginia and in the Bush White House.

Mr. Secretary lays out the the trials Bryant and his family endured, notably the murder of their daughter, Lisa, a Princeton honors graduate and newly commissioned army officer.  An ex-sergeant and member of the prestigious Honor Guard was convicted and given a life sentence.

At the museum, Bryant interspersed wry humor with lessons he has learned along the way, punctuality included.

He was star point guard on his high school basketball team, but would get punished for tardiness and even benched for a season.

He recalled meeting the late Gen. Colin Powell, who became a friend shortly after Bryant and his family moved back to Virginia from duty in England. Bryant said that as a major then, it would have been inappropriate to introduce himself to Powell, a colonel, even though they lived in the same neighborhood.

“He (Powell) jumped in his old Volvo and drove around and said, ‘Hi, I’m Col. Powell, my wife is Alma. We have three children, two daughters and a son. Welcome to the community.' I found out then he was a man of high principle,no stone unturned. He did it the right way. And we became friends,” Bryant said.

The Museum event was a family celebration, with Bryant relatives and close friends traveling to be on hand. The Bryants own a home in the historically black Shady Side community of Columbia Beach.

Emily Bryant, his wife, said she'd been assigned “to make sure that he didn’t go on and on and onThank you for friends and family.for coming today. This is more than I ever expected. I kept saying to him, nobody wants to read that book."

She recalled being at the home of author/editor Julie Wakeman-Linn. “I said to Julie, would you please help him with this book? The rest is history. Now it’s Bryants’ book, but Julie kept him on task.”