Robert H. Dickerson, founder of Camden’s Unity Community Center, entrepreneur, and humanitarian, has died at 69

Robert H. Dickerson, 69, of Camden, founder of the city’s acclaimed Unity Community Center, humanitarian, electronics expert, teacher, mentor, and athlete, died Monday, Oct. 9, of heart failure at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.

Mr. Dickerson was born in Darby, lived in Philadelphia and Camden, and worked tirelessly for more than four decades to provide thousands of young people and others from Camden and elsewhere a safe place to congregate, engage, learn about the world, and make life better for everyone.

He and his wife, Wanda, founded Camden’s Unity Community Center on Mount Ephraim Avenue in 1983 and kept it open at night when most after-school activities had ended. A championship boxer as a youth, black belt in karate, martial arts hall of famer, and onetime co-manager of the Ebonys musical group, Mr. Dickerson was drawn to the performing arts, and the center offered dynamic holistic programs that focused on Black history, music, dance, sports, and entrepreneurship.

His signature program was the Universal Pasha Karate School. Later, he added the center’s celebrated African Dance and Drum Ensemble, Music and Jazz Ensemble, Royal Brass Band, and a dozen other groups and projects.

Those performers appeared at the Kimmel Center, Walter K. Gordon Theater at Rutgers University-Camden, World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures in Senegal, and elsewhere across the country and abroad. In a profile he wrote earlier, Mr. Dickerson said his activities were designed to promote “self-discipline, moral character, cultural awareness, and cultural pride.”

A longtime friend said in a Facebook tribute: “Mr. Rob absolutely impacted my life in the best way, by making a kid from Camden feel special, like I was destined to change the world.”

Mr. Dickerson hosted lively conferences and seminars — he called them “edu-tainment” — and the center became central in the lives of so many that city and state officials championed its expansion over the years. Members of the Camden School Board recognized Mr. Dickerson’s passing at their October meeting, and superintendent Katrina T. McCombs said in a tribute: “Mr. Dickerson’s legacy of service, activism, and dedication to our community will forever be remembered.”

He appeared on radio and TV shows, was featured in The Inquirer and other publications, and received awards and citations for his activism, including from Gov. Phil Murphy in 2020. Camden officials on Friday renamed part of a street near the Unity center as Robert Dickerson Way, and he and his wife were added to the city’s Wall of Fame.

His overarching goal at the center, he said, was to share “a universal and spiritual approach to continue the beauty of uplifting humanity while at the same time teaching African Americans to take pride in their roots and the history of the African Diaspora.”

Robert Henry Dickerson was born June 13, 1954. He was especially close to his grandmother when he was young and graduated from Darby-Colwyn High School in 1972.

He joined the NAACP and became part of the Nation of Islam after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. He studied electronics and large-scale computers at Lyons Technical Institute in Upper Darby after high school and worked for Honeywell industries and then Colonial Penn insurance company as a computer operator from 1972 to 1982.

He met Wanda Johnson in 1973, and they married in 1975, and had sons Jamal and Nasir, and daughters Atiya and Ayanna. “I fell in love from the first time I saw him,” his wife said.

Mr. Dickerson won a Joe Frazier Silver Gloves middleweight boxing championship in 1975 and was inducted into the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 1994. He operated his own electronics business for years in addition to the Unity center.

He listened often to rhythm and blues oldies and created an extensive playlist with his wife. They met Maulana Karenga, the creator of Kwanzaa, in 2007, and he gave Mr. Dickerson the African name Mshujaa, which means warrior.

» READ MORE: The Unity Community Center has been sharing African culture for a quarter-century

In his profile, Mr. Dickerson said his family “strove very hard to be positive role models and mentors, especially for our young people.” His daughter Ayanna said: “He was always interested in how he could help other people.”

Ronsha Dickerson, whom he called his “daughter-in-love,” said Mr. Dickerson was like a giving tree who wrapped his branches around others to help them flourish. “His vision,” she said, “was that we have to help our people.”

In addition to his wife, children, and daughter-in-law, Mr. Dickerson is survived by 15 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, two brothers, and other relatives.

Celebrations of his life were held Thursday, Oct. 19, and Friday, Oct. 20.

Donations in his name may be made to the Unity Community Center, 1105 MacArthur Dr., Camden, N.J. 08104.