In a funeral that blended military ritual, gospel music and political reminiscences -- along with frequent doses of laughter -- civil rights activist and law enforcement official Harvey Adams Jr. was remembered yesterday as a "lion" of a man, a trailblazer and a friend.

Mr. Adams, who died Monday at age 80, helped calm Pittsburgh during the 1968 race riots while also changing the face of the city's all-white police force to one reflecting its diverse community, mourners recalled.

Straight-talking and compassionate, he fought aggressively for the rights of minorities while living a life of "strict personal honesty, independence and completeness ... in all of his doings, in all of his surroundings," declared the Rev. Samson Cooper, who delivered the eulogy.

"He was a neighbor to the rich and poor, black and white ... literate and illiterate, Jew and Christian, a friend to the saints and also to the 'ain'ts,' " the Rev. Cooper said.

Mr. Adams served as a Pittsburgh police officer for 23 years and was a former chief of the city Housing Authority and Wilkinsburg police departments. As president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP, he fiercely advocated for greater minority representation on the police force.

Pittsburgh Assistant Police Chief Maurita Bryant called Mr. Adams a "magnificent" man, saying she was proud to have known him.

"There is not a man or woman of color who does not owe a debt to this man," drawing soft laughter when she added she could "envision him now at the pearly gates."

Nearly 300 mourners jammed the Bethel AME Church in the Hill District, listening to "Amazing Grace," "God is Real" and a soulfully delivered rendition of "The Lord's Prayer" by Mr. Adams' daughter, Carol Lynn Adams.

The crowd included past and present civil rights leaders, from former NAACP chapter President Tim Stevens to the chapter's current head, M. Gayle Moss. She called Mr. Adams "my buddy," recalling the day when he first told her, "Girl, you must run" for the NAACP's board.

"He was my coach, my trainer, he gave me the game plan and the inspiration I needed to win," she said.

"He was my big brother," added Eddie Edwards, former owner of television station WPTT and a longtime broadcaster, who recalled visits and phone conversations with Mr. Adams in which both men lamented the loss of WAMO, the city's only black radio station. Mr. Edwards said he promised Mr. Adams that he would bring a new radio station aimed at African-American listeners to Pittsburgh again.

Both Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato had other commitments and sent representatives who read proclamations -- including the declaration that Sept. 12th now would be known in the city as "Harvey Adams Jr. Day."

Other mourners included state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Bloomfield; County Council member Bill Robinson; Pittsburgh Police Chief Nate Harper, and Louis "Hop" Kendrick, a radio personality, onetime mayoral candidate and former director of the county's minority business enterprise office. Former Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Helen Faison said Mr. Adams' death represented, for her, the end of an era.

"He was so visible," she said. "I sense that the new generation [of civil rights leaders] is going to be concerned with different kinds of issues."

Before the service, Mr. Ferlo sat in a back pew and reminisced about his days protesting with Mr. Adams.

"We were at a lot of contentious meetings together," he said, on such topics as apartheid in South Africa and controversies involving the Pittsburgh police and its Citizen Police Review Board.

"He was not about niceties," said Mr. Ferlo. "He was a direct, explicit guy" who didn't hesitate to stand up to the police hierarchy, fighting hard for greater minority representation in the city's police force, even if it cost him promotions. Remarkably, Mr. Adams did this during his long stint as local NAACP president, which overlapped his career as a police officer and, later, as chief of the Housing Authority force.

"That took a lot of courage," Mr. Ferlo said.

A U.S. Army veteran who served in Korea, Mr. Adams refused an officer's commission because he felt the Army officer's corps was too segregated.

But in commemoration of his military service, an Army color guard, complete with bugler, performed presentations of the flag and of arms during and after the funeral yesterday.

Mr. Adams will be cremated and his ashes placed in a niche at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Cecil.