It didn't take long for Harvey Michael to realize teaching wasn't a career calling. He wanted to reach and help a wider segment of the community, especially poor blacks.
He taught high school English briefly then joined the Atlanta Housing Authority, where for nearly 30 years he managed public housing projects and senior housing facilities. He retired in 1979 and remained in Atlanta till 2000 when he moved to Silver Spring, Md., to live with MaeWanda Michael-Jackson, his only child.
"In public housing, he tried to help the poverty-stricken and the disadvantaged," his daughter said. "He tried to help the community in that sense and, of course, he had to make decisions on who stays and who goes. He was transferred to different complexes across the city."
On April 14, Harvey Benton Michael died from a hip infection and a stroke at the Loch Raven Community Living Center in Baltimore. He was 96. A memorial will be held at 10 a.m.Tuesday at First Congregational Church in Atlanta. Hines-Rinaldi Funeral Home, Inc. of Silver Spring, Md., and Carl M. Williams Funeral Directors, Inc. of Atlanta are in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Michael was raised in Sheffield, Ala., but lived the majority of his life in Atlanta. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, where he was an editor for The Carolina Times, a black community newspaper. He got his master's degree from the Atlanta University School of Social Work.
In 1941, he entered the Army where he received the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medal and the American Theater Medal for his service during World War II. He met his wife, the late Adeline Gray Michael, while stationed at Fort Benning.
Mr. Michael was employed in public housing during the early days of a federal government initiative to provide affordable housing to those in need. His daughter said he probably would have supported "more humane" reform initiatives begun in the mid-1990s to dismantle densely-populated projects and relocate residents. The Atlanta Housing Authority pioneered such efforts.
Mr. Michael had lived with his daughter in Maryland the past 11 years. He was 85, unhealthy and living alone in southwest Atlanta when she decided it was time for him to relocate.
"I gave him no choice," his daughter said, "And I am the only child, so I just told him I was coming to get him. But he longed for Atlanta."
Additional survivors include a brother, Bruce T. Michael of Jamaica, N.Y., and one grandchild.
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