Dichotomy of a poverty foe

Coard, who died last week at the age of 82, has been celebrated as the guiding force behind Action for Boston Community Development, the city’s largest and most influential antipoverty agency.

But Coard’s friends, allies, and admirers gathered not only to celebrate his life, but perhaps get a glimpse of the private and elusive man behind the good works.

Representative Edward Markey, who had shared a close relationship with Coard for many years, delivered a lengthy eulogy that sought to capture the scale of Coard’s influence.

He invoked Edward M. Kennedy’s famous tribute to his fallen brother, Robert: “a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it.’’

But he also remembered a man who struck respect, if not fear, into the elected officials he called upon to do the agency’s bidding in Washington and at the State House.

“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,’’ Markey said.

ABCD is a product of the antipoverty activism that helped to define the 1960s. But it was also identified - to an uncommon degree for such a prominent agency - with Coard.

Many people believed, erroneously, that he had founded it. Certainly he defined it, with his combination of drive, charm, and intellect, becoming in the process one of the city’s most politically accomplished non-politicians.

Coard went to work at ABCD in 1964, and took over in 1969. It was a much smaller agency then, driven by a revolutionary sense of mission. Today it holds annual dinners attended by the governor and the mayor.

After yesterday’s service, Bruce Bolling, a former city councilor, spoke of Coard as part of a generation of black activists who changed the city politically. He likened him to Thomas Atkins, the first black city councilor, and Paul Parks, the former education commissioner who served many roles in city and state government.

Coard’s legacy will continue, of course - in the form of a mega-agency that does everything from fuel assistance to running a two-year college, and in the legion of activists who have learned from his career.

Nationally, Coard helped engineer legislation nearly 30 years ago requiring federal funding for community action programs, ensuring that the movement ABCD exemplifies would survive, regardless of which party was in power.

Personally, Coard was more of an enigma, passionate but guarded, politically vocal but personally almost secretive. It’s probably fair to say his admirers outnumbered his close friends, and I think that’s exactly how he wanted it.

John Drew, Coard’s close friend and handpicked successor, recently gathered a group of friends to share stories about Coard, the person. He realized that, even within the agency, few people really knew the man who had guided it through his drive and force of will.

They didn’t know the man who could be tough and demanding, but couldn’t bear to fire anyone; or the friend who loved to go out, but couldn’t bring himself to pick up a check.

He and others hoped to fill in some of the gaps between Bob Coard the historic figure, and Bob Coard the person.

The selection of Drew to succeed Coard offers the comfort of continuity, but Drew would acknowledge that the agency can never be the same without the person who has been its face for 40 years.

“I was just grateful for the opportunity to be there as he pushed the world a bit,’’ Drew said. He was far from alone in his gratitude.

Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.