R. Edward Stewart

"I recognized early on that in this business of community development, particularly when you're corralling investments for communities and neighborhoods that don't immediately seem to be promising, the key is to sell concepts, ideas and yourself," Stewart explained. "To do this, you must persist, persevere and pray."

Other concepts have also been a part of Stewart's agenda. He said he always tries to surround himself with capable, creative people who can buy into the vision of helping people improve their lives. "I also never stop learning because in this business," he said, "when you think you know it all, you're dead."

For almost four decades, Stewart has infused life into the vision that an organization can bring hope and a better quality of life to people who need it.

"If the truth be known," said Willian "Bill" Bell, Durham's mayor and Senior Vice-President and Chief Operating Office at UDI/CDC, "for many years, Ed Stewart put this organization on his shoulders and carried it." Bell knows whereof he speaks because he was involved with the organization during some of its leanest years, and served for 10 years as the UDI/CDC board chairman.

Many examples support this assertion. Most recently, UDI/CDC moved to help revitalize the neighborhood that begins near the corner of Fayetteville and Pilot Streets with a commercial complex, anchored with a grocery store. The company originally slated to anchor the project, Acme Fresh Market, had financial difficulties and could not honor their commitment. Undaunted by the unexpected turn of events, Stewart pursued other potential grocery store partners, and after repeated presentations persuaded the Salisbury (NC-based Food Lion grocery chain to anchor the development The store opened in May 2004.

The Food Lion store isn't a monument to persistence for two years, but more like 30 years because Stewart's first vision for a commercial complex in southeast Durham goes back to 1974 when UDI/CDC began developing one of Durham's first industrial parks. The shopping center, planned then for the corner of Cook and Fayetteville Road, was to have contained abot 55,000 square feet of retail space and about 15,000 square feet of professional office space, according to Stewart. For various reasons, that dream did not materialize.

Remember, though, Stewart practices dogged persistence. Though scaled down because of today's construction costs and topography of the current location, the Food Lion store, anchoring a commercial complex at the corner of Fayetteville and Pilot Streets, demonstrates the outcome of dreaming persistently and working with perseverance.

"That's always my approach," Steward said. "I just don't take no for an answer because no means that people who need what we bring to the table miss out on exciting opportunities."

That persistence has characterized Stewart's work with this organization, from its beginning as United Durham, Inc.

The organization was a for profit company with a grocery store and a modular home factory on the drawing board when Stewart became the first Executive Director of United Durham, Inc. The company developed both ventures, but they closed after just a few years. Following the company's reorganization into a non-profit community development corporation, Stewart and a small staff set out to develop one of Durham's first industrial parks.

Persistence paid off again because Stewart had to convince federal sources to provide a $1.2 million grant--about $800,000 of which would be used to construct water and sewer facilities on property for the industrial park. He then had to convince local sources to match the federal grant with an additional $400,000.

"That's where Bill Kennedy, then the CEO at NC Mutual Life Insurance came in," Stewart explained. "I knew that this might be too speculative a venture for some of our local banks so I had to search for other sources."

With the grant approved, things were ready to go, but a change in federal administrations--from Democrat to Republican--seemed to foil the dream. Enter perseverance! "Getting access to those funds was not something I could do on the telephone, or with letters," Stewart said. "So once a month for eight months, I went to Washington to talk with anyone who would listen to explain to them why we had to have that money. At the 12th hour, after eight months, they released the money."

Stewart said his perseverance is grounded in images etched into this memory during the late 1960s as he began transitioning from a high school educator in Raleigh (NC) to a community development executive in Durham,(NC) his hometown.

"As I traveled through counties in eastern North Carolina, such as Richmond, Roberson, Scotland, Nash, Edgecombe and Craven, I saw families living in cramped houses that looked like they were about to fall down. I saw babies on beds with flies literally covering their faces. I saw firsthand what the lack of access to education and the oppressive burden of poverty did to people. I've never forgotten those images."

Those images though are just a part of Stewart's perseverance in this work for almost 40 years. "I also enjoy what I do. I enjoy working with new ideas. I enjoy the challenges," Stewart said. "Most of all, I enjoy seeing the outcomes of our efforts."

Stewart began this work after spending 10 years as an educator following his graduation from North Carolina College (now NC Central University) with a masters degree in business education. He taught for three years at Durham Business College and for seven years at Ligon High School in Raleigh. While at Ligon, Stewart established a cooperative education program that allowed some students to attend classes during the mornings and work during the afternoons in various local companies. This program, an outstanding innovation at the time, attracted the attention of Jim McDonald, an executive with The North Carolina Fund.

"McDonald asked me to work with them during the summer, with their Manpower Training Program,": Stewart explained. "I did that, and at the end of the summer, I decided to stick with that work, rather than return to teaching.""

Thus a persistent, persevering visionary found his niche.

Stewart began making a name for himself as he worked for local community development organizations, such as Operation Breakthrough and The Durham Business and Professional Chain. Later, Nathan Garrett asked Stewart to consider taking the Executive Director's post with United Durham, Inc. Now, almost 40 years later, Stewart continues to lead this organization to be a catalyst for progressive economic change in Durham.

A man of faith and a member of St. Joseph's AME Church where he serves on the Trustee Board, Stewart said that persistence and perseverance notwithstanding, he always includes prayer as one of the cornerstones of his success.

"I believe in prayer because I've seen it work," Stewart said. "We simply could not have done what we have over these years without divine direction."