Article published June 25, 2009
OLD WEST END
Activist remains hospitalized after assault, bike theft
Neighborhood teen faces charge
Robert Brundage likes to bike so he can interact with the community, a friend says.
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By DAVID YONKE
BLADE STAFF WRITER
An Old West End resident known for his extensive community involvement and a wealth of academic knowledge remained in critical condition last night after he was punched in the head and knocked to the ground by a teenager from the neighborhood who stole his bicycle.
Robert Brundage, 66, has been in intensive care in St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center since he was attacked about 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Police arrested Dailahntae Jemison, 15, of 7 Tremain Drive, an hour after the assault and charged him with aggravated robbery.
Additional charges are possible, prosecutors said.
Repeated efforts to reach Toledo city Councilman Michael Ashford, whose district includes the Old West End area where the attack occurred, were unsuccessful last night.
Mr. Brundage, who received a doctorate in biophysics from Brandeis University, is known throughout the Toledo area for his tireless work for social justice, education, arts, and community organizations.
Among the groups he is actively involved with, by either serving on the board or regularly attending meetings, are the Collingwood Arts Center, the
Toledo Poetry Foundation, the Urban Coalition, the MultiFaith Council of Northwest Ohio, Toledo Area Jobs With Justice Coalition, Community Shares of Northwest Ohio, Toledo Grows,
Toledo Central City Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation, the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, and the Toledo Metroparks.
Mr. Brundage has called himself a “community cultivator” on his Facebook page.
“He’s brilliant. He’s unique. There is no describing him. He can’t be button-holed,” said Karen Krause, social justice chairman of the Toledo Area Jobs with Justice Coalition.
Robert Brundage, left, plays the cello while his brother, Alan, plays the violin. Mr. Brundage played the cello with the Toledo Youth Orchestra and later, the Boston Civic Symphony.
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Mr. Brundage just had left a meeting of Jobs with Justice, on which he serves on the steering committee, at the Kent Branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and had pedaled less than a quarter mile south on Collingwood Boulevard when he was attacked near Victoria Place.
Young Jemison, described by police as 5-feet, 6-inches tall and weighing 150 pounds, punched Mr. Brundage in the side of the head, knocking off his bicycle helmet and sending him to the ground, according to Capt. Ray Carroll, commander of the Toledo Police Investigative Services Bureau.
The suspect then fled with the bicycle, according to police. The teenager was arrested about a mile away on Tremain Drive near Ashland Avenue. He was taken to the Safety Building, police said. There are no other suspects in the case, Captain Carroll said.
Ms. Krause, a registered nurse, said she was called to the scene of the attack Monday evening and found Mr. Brundage lying unconscious on a grassy strip between the street and sidewalk.
There was nothing she could do except wait for emergency medical crews to arrive, she said.
Twanda Harris, guardian of Dailahnte Jemison, 15, charged in the attack, says the teen has ‘never been that kind of kid.’
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“Nobody knows the entire scope of his community involvement,” Ms. Krause said. “He is truly an amazing, multifaceted person.”
Several friends said it was tragic that Mr. Brundage’s suspected assailant was the type of person he worked so diligently to help.
“The irony of the whole thing is that the 15-year-old kid that created this whole incident probably doesn’t realize how much Bob was trying to make his world better,” said Steven Flagg, who serves with Mr. Brundage on the Toledo schools’ watchdog group Urban Coalition.
Mr. Brundage has contacts in a broad array of community organizations and helps connect people and groups with mutual interests, friends said.
“He is like a walking calendar. He always keeps me up to date on various events,” Darlene Fisher, a Toledo school board member, said. “He is knowledgeable about so many activities — youth activities, too. The type of person who allegedly attacked him is the type of person he would be trying to help.”
Mr. Brundage’s late father, Donald Brundage, was a chemistry professor at the University of Toledo.
A 1960 honors graduate of Scott High School, Mr. Brundage placed 15th among boys statewide in the Ohio Scholarship Tests as a senior and won scholarships from two national organizations, Phi Kappa Phi and the National Science Foundation.
He played cello in the Toledo Youth Orchestra and later for the Boston Civic Symphony.
Mr. Brundage graduated from the University of Toledo in 1964 with a bachelor’s of science degree in engineering physics, where he also studied philosophy and cello.
He graduated in 1969 from Brandeis University with a doctorate in biophysics, where he studied chemistry and continued his study of the cello.
He worked as a research scientist, engineer, and owned a sound-recording company in Massachusetts before returning to Toledo in 1998 “to optimize existing networks,” he wrote on Facebook.
Mr. Brundage lives on Maplewood Avenue in the Old West End, where he has let his back yard “go natural,” Mr. Flagg said.
“It might look like a jungle or a weed patch but he can tell you every single plant in the backyard and what you can use it for,” he said.Advocate for bicycling
Mr. Brundage rides his bicycle year-round, even after slipping on the ice while riding about a year ago and subsequently undergoing hip-replacement surgery, Mr. Flagg said.
He attends many TMACOG meetings to speak up as an advocate for bicycling.
Amjad Doumani, executive director of Community Shares of Northwest Ohio, where Mr. Brundage is on the executive committee, said Mr. Brundage rides a bike because it is healthy and good for the environment, and also because “he likes simple things in life.”
“A lot of people look at all the things like cars and TVs as convenience items that we can’t live without. He doesn’t look at it that way,” Mr. Doumani said. “He sees them as things that isolate you and make it inconvenient to be a productive member of society. If you sit on the couch and watch TV, it’s hard to relate to the people and the community around you. If you are in a car, you are isolated behind four doors and windows.”
Mr. Brundage’s family released a statement yesterday thanking the community for “the outpouring of support and well wishes” and for the police department’s “prompt apprehension of a suspect.”
The family members also said they “hold on to faith and hope for his recovery as he remains in critical condition” and that “he has shown incremental improvements of increased response.”‘I’m so shocked’
Prosecutors said the suspect, young Jemison, has no prior arrests in Lucas County. Juvenile Court officials said he lives with a foster mother, Twanda Harris, at the Tremain Drive address.
Last night, Ms. Harris, who said she has custody of the teenager, said she and her family and friends are shocked.
“This has floored all of us. Dailahntae has never been that type of person to harm someone. That’s why I’m so shocked. He’s never been that kind of kid. Never,” Ms. Harris said.
She said the incoming sophomore at the Horizon Academy has lived with her for seven years since his father was sent to prison for drug violations and his mother asked her to take custody.
Ms. Harris said the teenager had two bicycles and never got into trouble. She said he called her the night Mr. Brundage was attacked, about 6:17 p.m., telling her he would be late getting home because a friend had taken his bike and he was waiting for him to return with it.
She said he called her from jail. “He just wanted to see how we were doing. So I just pretty much asked him why, you know? Why? Why?
“He didn’t answer me, but he spoke to my daughter and told her he didn’t know, he didn’t know why he did it.”
Dailahntae Jemison is being held at the Juvenile Justice Center and is scheduled for trial in Juvenile Court on July 7.
Staff writer Erica Blake contributed to this report.
Contact David Yonke at:dyonke@theblade.com or419-724-6154.
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