Robert Heard, at 57; ex-inmate later counseled homeless

In his 15 years as a counselor at Pine Street Inn, Robert Heard helped hundreds of homeless men and women defeat private demons and turn their lives around, as he had done after serving a 13-year prison sentence for manslaughter.

A large man, 6 feet 6 inches tall, he cast a net as wide as his girth, serving as both mentor and example to fellow inmates at Massachusetts correctional institutions and later to guests at Pine Street Inn, where he created and directed a program to prepare them to search for jobs.

''On first impression, Bob could be imposing and intimidating but once you got beyond that, there was this incredibly thoughtful person," said Lyndia Downie, president of Pine Street Inn. ''Though he had a tough exterior, underneath was a gentle giant."

Mr. Heard, who had once been a security chief in the Black Panther Party, died Jan. 29 of a blood clot at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He was 57 and lived in Weymouth.

''Bob was a man who understood redemption and how to see another side of a problem," said a friend, Northeastern University professor Joseph Warren. ''He was always positive. He didn't preach to you. Underneath, you knew he was a man of God. . . . He was believable because of what he came through. He understood right from wrong because he had been there.

''He was not proud of what he had done. He just said it had happened and that was the end of that."

Mr. Heard pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge after a fatal shooting in a bar in Codman Square in 1980. Mary Johnson of Dorchester, a longtime friend, said, ''He told me he got into a fight and was defending himself."

Mr. Heard was born in Hartwell, Ga., and moved to Cincinnati with his family when he was 10. In an essay titled ''Metamorphosis: The Making of a Black Panther," Mr. Heard explained why he joined the Black Panther Party, cofounded by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in Oakland, Calif., in 1966 at the height of the civil rights movement.

''My awareness of being black and isolated was a process that occurred in the 11th grade, when I was forced to go to an all-white high school. Sometime during these years I read my first book about the black experience in America -- ''The Negro Revolt" by Louis Lomax. I was becoming more rebellious."

He had never planned to go to college, but his mother wanted him to go. ''She worked as a maid for two doctors," he wrote, ''and they contributed to my education."

He was accepted at Fort Valley State University in Fort Valley, Ga., where he studied zoology. ''When I realized I was much more interested in people than in animals," he wrote, ''I formed an alliance with other students and we started an organization called The Fraternal Order of Blacks. We were angry youth. Our anger was fed by news media, the integration movement, and the increasing militancy of blacks."

He joined the Black Panther Party in 1968 and ''after a few weeks I ended up in Boston. There I enrolled in Panther education courses" and became involved in ''major community work organizing health programs, free breakfast programs, food co-ops, and van services for the elderly."

But it was Mr. Heard's work with other inmates, both in prison and after his release, and his work at Pine Street Inn for which he will be remembered.

Jamie Bissonnette, director of the New England program of the American Friends Service Committee Criminal Justice Program, based in Cambridge, had worked in the criminal justice program with Mr. Heard since 1971 at MCI-Walpole, when he represented the Black Panthers.

''Given the racial tensions in Massachusetts in the 1970s," she said, ''Bob realized prisoners needed books about black history." Such books were considered contraband in prisons at the time, she said.

Mr. Heard went to Phillips Brooks House at Harvard, where students provided him with an extensive collection. ''This was before Bob committed his crime," she said, ''and he was a very respected educator."

Many prisoners benefited from the books and went on to get degrees, she said. ''They will tell you they started out with Bob's black history courses."

When Mr. Heard became an inmate himself, he continued his pursuit of education for himself and others, becoming the prisoner representative for Boston University's college program for inmates. ''He had an office in the education building at MCI-Norfolk," Bissonnette said.

Mr. Heard had ''an amazing capacity to mentor and work with the younger inmates," largely because he took responsibility for his own crime, said the Rev. Edward W. Rodman, professor of urban ministry and pastoral theology at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, who worked with Mr. Heard on several projects. ''Bob made a major contribution to the life of prisoners at MCI-Norfolk," Rodman said. ''The education program would not have worked if it had not been for him. It started out as a GED program and then it morphed into a college program. It really was a university education within prison walls."

Mr. Heard was the key liaison between Norfolk and BU, working with the university's then-president, John Silber. The program brought professor Elizabeth ''Ma" Barker into the prison to teach and recite poetry along with other stars of the academic and media world.

''We came in shackles and we left free men," Mr. Heard told the Globe in 2001 in speaking about the BU program. ''In prison you are almost invisible," he said. ''But to people like Silber and Elizabeth, we were students and what we said mattered."

Mr. Heard was ''perhaps the finest student in his class at Norfolk prison," Silber said yesterday in a prepared statement. ''His life after release was a blessing to everyone associated with him."

Mr. Heard earned a bachelor's degree in 1985 and a master's degree in 1990 from BU.

Soon after his release from prison, Mr. Heard went to Pine Street Inn as an intern under a prerelease program, Downie said. He then worked as overnight supervisor and then in the shelter's sober program for men.

"Our guests knew of Bob's past and it made a difference," Downie said. ''His message was by example. Most of them did what Bob told them to do: 'Get off the street. Get a job. Get on with your life.' "

Mr. Heard helped create Pine Street's STRIVE program eight years ago and was its first administrator, said Sam Hartwell, cofounder of the first STRIVE program in East Harlem in 1984. Hartwell said the Pine Street Inn program was the first STRIVE, an acronym for Support and Training Result in Valuable Employees, in a homeless shelter.

''There was a tremendous amount of work to adapt to the homeless environment," he said. ''They had to modify it to made a little softer approach. They lengthened the training time and were more lenient to their clients' relapses into alcohol. Bob was a wonderful guy, dedicated to his work. His death creates a tremendous hole in the program."

Mr. Heard was a devoted father and an especially ''gentle giant" to his 12-year-old daughter, Kenya Ann. In recent years, she sang with him in the ''Black Nativity" show, performed during the Christmas season. He has been a cast member for years, contributing his ''sensational tenor voice," according to Warren, also a member.

''Bob was more than a singer," said Warren. He was a gentleman who became everybody's brother in the cast. It meant so much to him that he could be a father in the true sense of the word to his daughter. But he became a true father to so many."

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Heard leaves four sisters, Judy Brady and Sonya Brady, both of Cincinnati, and Tracey Brady of Atlanta and Janice Brady of California; a brother, Anthony Brady of Cincinnati; and his stepfather, Ashmore Brady of Cincinnati.

A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. in Prince Hall Masonic Temple in Dorchester. Burial will be in Cincinnati.