MELVIN C. STOUDAMIRE, 1928-2010 Lagrange-area leader was a Jeep supervisor

Melvin C. Stoudamire, 81, a neighborhood leader whose earnings as a Jeep worker provided his family's home, his children's education, and a comfortable retirement, died Aug. 24 at Toledo Hospital.

He was a dialysis patient and in ill health for much of the last year, his daughter, Deborah Green, said.

Mr. Stoudamire, a North Toledo resident for more than 30 years, was a former president of the Lagrange Village Council and was a member of the Lagrange Development Corp. board.

"He was an amazing man, he really was," said Terry Glazer, chief executive of what is now United North community development corporation. "He had a lot of fight in him. He wasn't the kind of guy who would give up.

"People respected him, regardless of race or age or sex," Mr. Glazer said.

To help police - and his neighbors - fight crime, he enrolled in the Toledo Citizens Police Academy. He later was an officer in the academy's alumni association.

He rode along with police crews on occasion to point out neighborhood trouble spots and troublemakers.

"He had a lot of nerve," his sister, Eva Oxner, said. "He wasn't afraid to stand up for what was right."

He was born Dec. 15, 1928, and grew up just outside downtown, near 12th and Scott streets, and in the Albertus Brown Homes, where the Stoudamire family was among the first residents, his sister said.

He left Libbey High School and married his first wife, Bernice. Not long after, he heard through the grapevine that Willys-Overland Motors was to hire five black workers. He stood in line at the offices of Local 12, United Auto Workers, to get a "recommendation card," without which it was nearly impossible to get hired, Mr. Stoudamire told The Blade in 1997.

He was sixth in a line of hundreds. His brother James was fifth.

"He stepped back and he let me in," Mr. Stoudamire recalled in 1997. His brother was hired more than a week later.

He was 36 when he received a high school-equivalency diploma, about the same time a son and his daughter were graduating from Scott High School.

Mr. Stoudamire studied the union contract and was elected steward of the paint shop, which had only 10 black workers out of more than 100. He remained steward year after year.

"He had some dynamic positions he was lucky for a man of color to hold continually," his daughter said.

"It was very difficult to deal with the prejudice and knowing that just because of the color of your skin, you were denied certain positions, even having a job," his daughter said.

He was determined to overcome the odds.

"He was conscious of the fact that he had to be excellent," his daughter said. "He didn't settle for less."

He later became a supervisor at Jeep. He retired in 1992.

In the mid-1990s, when Chrysler Corp. was on the fence about what to do with its Toledo Jeep operations, Mr. Stoudamire attended Keep Jeep rallies.

He owned a nice home. His son James and his daughter graduated from college. He had a good pension.

"Jeep made it possible," his daughter said. "For a person without an education, [Jeep] gave him a venue to fulfill his dream. He was a success, and he felt good about himself and felt good about what he achieved. He got up in the morning with a zest for life."

He also was an inventor. He had nursing home residents in mind when he came up with a portable hair-washing system, which he patented in 1997.

Mr. Stoudamire was a member of New Life Church of God in Christ, his family's home church, where he was a deacon, sang in the choir, and taught classes.

His marriage to Bernice Stoudamire ended in divorce.

He married the former Dorothy Stills in 1975. She died in 2007, as did his son Melvin, Jr.

Surviving are his daughter, Deborah Green; son, James Stoudamire; stepsons, David and Kenny Stills; sister, Eva Oxner; four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. Thursday in the Dale-Riggs Funeral Chapel, where a wake service will follow from 6-8 p.m. Thursday. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at New Life Church of God in Christ.

Contact Mark Zaborney at:

mzaborney@theblade.com

or 419-724-6182.