Arthur Edmunds

One by one, the civil rights giants whose names grace the Freedom Corner Monument in the Hill District are passing away.

Arthur J. Edmunds, executive director of the Urban League of Pittsburgh for a quarter of a century, died yesterday at Forbes Hospice after a long bout with cancer. He was 86.

A native of Des Moines, Iowa, Mr. Edmunds embodied the values of the American heartland. A tall man with a modest smile and calm demeanor, the flashiest thing about him may have been that he was born on Independence Day.

He believed the American Dream belonged to every citizen and worked tirelessly to help the country live up to its ideals.

After graduating from Fisk University with a B.A. in history and government, Mr. Edmunds earned a master's degree in education from Drake University.

On his 38th birthday in 1960, Mr. Edmunds became the fifth executive director of the Pittsburgh Urban League.

Though new to the town he would call home for the next 48 years, he had ideas about how to make the Urban League more relevant to the lives of ordinary Pittsburghers.

"Of all the candidates [for the job], I thought he was the best," said Elaine Coles, his executive assistant for his 25-year run at the Urban League.

"He was likable and down-to-earth. You always thought he was on the same level even though he was the boss," she said.

His previous experience as chief of the Flint, Mich., branch, combined with his stint at the St. Louis chapter, served Mr. Edmunds well in Pittsburgh. With his extensive executive experience, he hit the ground running.

Under Mr. Edmunds' tenure the Urban League grew from a staff of nine with a $60,000 annual budget in 1960 to a staff of 150 with 10,000 clients and a $2.5 million operating budget in 1985. He transformed the Pittsburgh branch into one of the largest and most effective in the country.

He didn't let the chapter's success go to his head. "He was very thrifty," Ms. Coles said. "He would suck a stamp right off of an envelope; that's how thrifty he was."

"He was outstanding," said Ronald R. Davenport, chief executive officer of Sheridan Broadcasting. "At a time when we needed leadership, Art stuck with the Urban League instead of jumping to one of the poverty programs for more money. He was honest, straightforward and effective."

Mr. Edmunds understood more than most how to motivate people, make an organization work and raise money -- crucial talents for a civil rights leader during a time of unprecedented social upheaval.

"He was a consummate diplomat," said Leon L. Haley, Mr. Edmunds' successor. "He was always calm and focused. He was a trained social worker who saw the Urban League as a way to advance education programs, health care and employment opportunities in the community."

Mr. Haley worked with Mr. Edmunds in the mid-1960s and recalled his professionalism. "He moved people through logic, education, persuasion and a little nudging," Mr. Haley said. "I never knew anyone who disliked Art. He was all about building coalitions and collaboration."

According to his colleagues, Mr. Edmunds understood the importance of reaching across the city's racial and civic divide. He sat on many boards and worked closely with people like philanthropist Elsie Hillman, the late Sen. John Heinz and former Gov. Dick Thornburgh.

"He never tried to be a public figure," Mr. Davenport said. "There was no more respected leader in the [national] Urban League movement than Art Edmunds. His phone calls always got returned."

For Mr. Edmunds, making allies within the region's social, political and philanthropic elites was part of a long-range strategy to position African-American professionals, blue-collar workers, college students and interns in places where black faces were rarely seen.

"He was a strong advocate of African-American job training," Mr. Haley said. "He was always pressing for opening up corporate office doors Downtown to African-Americans."

Mr. Haley lists among Mr. Edmunds' many accomplishments a program that provided health care education for unmarried pregnant teenagers. "I believe [the Pittsburgh Urban League program] was the first in the nation to do so," he said.

Mr. Edmunds was a foe of red-lining -- denying financial help, especially mortgages, to certain neighborhoods because of race -- and met frequently with the Board of Realtors to plead the case for simple fairness.

He helped establish fair housing groups that brought blacks and whites together to talk about desegregating neighborhoods.

Few people knew Art Edmunds better than lawyer Wendell Freeland, one of the men responsible for hiring him 48 years ago.

"We were the Mutt and Jeff of the Urban League," Mr. Freeland said with a laugh. "He was a good golfer and an even more dedicated football fan. He used to sit in the snow, sleet and rain through losing seasons at Pitt Stadium waiting for Three Rivers Stadium to be built.

"After that, he went to four Steelers Super Bowls and always had the best seats in the house."

Like all of Art Edmunds' friends, Mr. Freeland spoke highly of his friend's work ethic and admired the fact he wrote a well-regarded history of the Pittsburgh Urban League and sat on many boards, including those of West Penn Hospital, WQED, the Pittsburgh Foundation and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western Pennsylvania.

In a 1985 essay in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the eve of his retirement, Mr. Edmunds said the mission of the Urban League movement was to "persuade the American people (and those who set policy for them) to live up to the simple ideal of equality on which this nation was founded."

Mr. Edmunds is survived by his wife, Gladys; a sister, Sue Williams of Atlanta; four children, Arthur J. of Pittsburgh, Lyn Small of Cincinnati, Adam of Charlottesville, Va., and Sharon Jackson of Pittsburgh; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Oct. 14 at Calvary Episcopal Church, Shadyside. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Arthur J. Edmunds Endowed Scholarship at Fisk University, 1000 17th St. North, Nashville, TN 37208.