When Angela Alsobrooks was running for Prince George’s County executive, she called her dad early one morning to ease her nerves.

The work was mounting, and she was concerned about her campaign. So her father said: “That’s perfect.”

That wasn’t exactly the response she was looking for.

“That tells me that you have the proper respect for what you’re doing,” she remembers him saying. “I would be concerned if you didn’t feel that. It means that you understand how important it is.”

James “Mack” McArthur Alsobrooks paused. “But your faith will be stronger than any fear you ever have.”

His reassurance carried Angela through that election and, later, her campaign for U.S. Senate. She found herself quoting him while talking to voters, stressing the importance of having empathy and maintaining a positive outlook. In office, she called him whenever she needed a gut check on a policy proposal.

“His wisdom was not just geopolitical wisdom, but he was a deeply spiritual person,” Angela Alsobrooks said. “He also talked to me just about goodness, like what he felt was right for people, what the moral answer was.”

Mack Alsobrooks spent his life mentoring young people, including his children, ensuring his guidance would outlive him. The Prince George’s County salesman died April 7 of acute myeloid leukemia. He was 78.

He was born Jan. 24, 1948, in North Carolina, the oldest of Sarah and Adam Alsobrooks’ three children. He happily took on the responsibility of looking after his siblings, John and Carol, especially after his parents divorced when he was young, his sister said.

“He had a sense of pride in being a big brother and looked at his role as a protector and a counselor,” Carol Milligan said.

It was apparent from the beginning that Mack had the ”gift of gab,” his sister said. Combine that with an outgoing personality, and her brother never had trouble making friends. He was also an avid reader who loved listening to music and dancing, and his Christian upbringing was central to his life.

The family moved to Washington, D.C., when Mack was about 5 years old. He attended some of the best schools in the area and was taught by revered educators, including the R&B singer Roberta Flack. He was a gifted student with a near-photographic memory, his daughter said.

“His mind was like a computer,” Angela Alsobrooks said.

After high school, Mack dressed in his “best threads” to interview for a job selling insurance at Prudential Financial, his daughter said, hoping to convince the bosses that he could do the work without the college degree they preferred. At the end, the interviewer told him, “I’m going to give you a shot, Alsobrooks, but you’re never, ever going to dress like this again.”

He later worked as an overnight newspaper distributor for The Washington Post and a car salesman.

Mack met his wife, Patricia, when he was 21 and she was a cosmetology student. Pat was doing a woman’s hair one day at her home, which happened to be next door to Mack’s house. He was friends with the woman’s son and came over.

They traded books, became instant best friends and were married the following year. The couple moved to Prince George’s County to settle down and raise two daughters, Kimberly and Angela. They started attending Ebenezer AME Church.

“They both seemed to be on the same page about the values that they wanted to give the kids,” Milligan said. “One of the top things, of course, was being a good person coming from a Christian background, and a strong emphasis on education.”

Pat’s cousin, Tina Smith, remembers liking Mack immediately. He was tall, quiet and respectful — and always had a story to share. When he started to say, “I used to know this guy …” everyone knew a Mack anecdote was coming.

Family was his first priority, and he would do anything for his daughters, Smith said. He could be strict, like when he banned television or required the girls to study for a certain amount of time each day. But he was also the kind of father who popped by his daughters’ elementary school to wave hello.

Later, when Angela had a daughter, he made sure to show up for her science fairs and track meets.

“He tried to make sure that his family was provided for and that his experiences and his outcomes spoke for him,” Smith said.

When his wife developed Alzheimer’s disease recently, Mack became her caregiver. And then, when he got sick last October, he told his children, “I don’t know how much time I have left, but whatever it is, I want it to be with Pat.”

A few nights before he died, Angela walked past her parents’ room, where her mother was holding her father’s hand and singing a made-up song: “Pat loves Mack. Mack loves Pat.”

Outside of his familial reputation, Mack was known as an excellent hand dancer and pool player. But he was proudest of his mentorship work. He grew up without a father and served a paternal role for as many people as he could, loved ones said.

“He liked to help people, and that was throughout his life, not only with family, but with the many friends that he had. And I think he saw a need,” said Milligan, his sister. “That was a lifelong passion of his, just giving back to young men and trying to give them direction.”

Some of his work was formal, like his service on the Prince George’s County Commission for Fathers, Men and Boys and his participation in “Beyond the Walls,” a church mentorship program for young men. With some friends from high school, he helped found the D.C.-based nonprofit Alliance of Concerned Men.

But other mentees found him. Jamie Higginbotham lived in the same neighborhood as the Alsobrooks family, and he said Mack saw him as “the son he never had.” He pushed him to go to school and get involved in church.

Through the years, Higginbotham called Mack often for advice, knowing he would always tell him the honest truth. When Higginbotham started coaching youth football, he modeled his mentorship approach after Mack’s.

“Losing him was like losing another parent,” Higginbotham said. “He was like another father to me, [keeping] me on the right path.”

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