As a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta in the early 1960s, Charles Richard Stephens learned he had a knack for fundraising.
When he was wasn’t participating in sit-ins or other community and campus protests, his family recalls, he was recruiting members for the Butler Street YMCA in Atlanta. By the time he left in 1970, he had boosted membership by nearly 10,000 to more than 30,000 members. In the process, Stephens found his place in life and blazed trails along the way.
Stephens, who graduated from Morehouse in 1960 and went on to earn a master’s degree in 1995 at Central Michigan University, would parlay his YMCA skills into widely sought talent and knowledge as one of the first Black men hired in higher education with the specific responsibility of helping Black colleges and universities raise money. He did, and in the process, opened doors for Blacks to pursue fundraising opportunities throughout higher education.
Stephens died on Valentine’s Day at age 74, after a battle with cancer.
His funeral was set for today in Atlanta.
Stephens started professionally in 1970 as a regional director for the United Negro College Fund, eventually rising to the UNCF’s national campaign director, according to his biography. He left the UNCF six years later, having managed three national fundraising campaigns and supervised the organization’s national fundraising staff.
He was hired by Morehouse College as the first development officer of the Morehouse Medical Education Program (now Morehouse School of Medicine), then to Dillard University in New Orleans as vice president of development.
