Boston building named after Grenadian-born CEO

By Jeremy C. Fox, Town Correspondent

Boston.com

The Action for Boston Community Development agency has announced that it will dedicate its central office building in honor of the late Robert M. Coard, ABCD’s president and CEO for more than four decades.

Coard retired in 2009, after leading the organization since 1968, and died in November of that year at 82. He had suffered from heart disease. A Globe obituary quoted former Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn as saying, “Boston without Bob Coard is like the Public Garden without the swan boats.”

Born in Grenada, Coard settled in Boston as a graduate student at Boston University and left his doctoral studies in city and regional planning to take a job at ABCD in 1964, two years after its founding. Within four years, he would run the organization.

Coard was known locally and nationally for his work against poverty, helping found the National Community Action Foundation and the Community Action Legal Assistance Program, and helping prevent President Richard Nixon from abolishing the federal Office of Economic Opportunity.

In a eulogy, Congressman Ed Markey said, “For generations of Boston politicians … Ed Markey included, ABCD didn’t stand for Action for Boston Community Development; it stood for Anything Bob Coard Desires.”

Scheduled for 11 a.m. on June 21, the dedication of the headquarters building at 178 Tremont St. will honor Coard’s service to the anti-poverty agency and the City of Boston but also mark the opening of ABCD’s 50th anniversary celebration.

“We have been here, on the ground, giving those in need a chance for better lives, for 50 years,” said current President and CEO John J. Drew in a press release. “We hope the entire Boston-area community will join ABCD in celebrating that significant milestone and laying the groundwork to continue our work with many partners in a time of critical need.”

The non-profit serves more than 90,000 low-income residents of Greater Boston through programs including Head Start centers, food pantries, family planning sites, fuel assistance, home weatherization, child care services, education programs, career development, housing services, health services, and elder services.

It was founded in 1962 with a $1.9 million grant from the Ford Foundation, funding from the Permanent Charity Fund (now The Boston Foundation), and support from other private funders. When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act in 1965, it became the city’s official antipoverty agency.

The anniversary celebration will continue through the spring and summer with a series of events including the annual Head Start Parade and Foster Grandparent Luncheon. It will climax in the fall, with the agency’s Community Volunteers Celebration in late September and the 50th Anniversary Gala at the Boston Marriott Copley Place on Nov. 2.