Robert C. Nelson, retired president and CEO of the Opportunities Industrialization Center, has died at 81
His programs addressed housing and mental health needs, and featured job training sessions for hospitality, maintenance, clerical, construction, culinary, and health care workers.
Robert C. Nelson, 81, of Blackwood, N.J., retired president and chief executive officer of the Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center, former Philadelphia schoolteacher, youth counselor, Vietnam veteran, and Hall of Fame member at Camphor Memorial United Methodist Church, died Saturday, March 8, of complications from dementia at the Berlin Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center.
Born and reared in West Philadelphia and a graduate of Central High School and the social work master’s program at Temple University, Mr. Nelson became a youth counselor at the Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center in 1978 and rose to director of youth programs, development director, and finally executive director, president, and CEO in 1985.
He was innovative and energetic, and chosen for OIC leadership roles by the Rev. Leon A. Sullivan, founder of the Philadelphia-based international nonprofit. For 29 years, Mr. Nelson created and oversaw programs that helped local residents of all capabilities and ages learn skills, find jobs, and improve the community.
His master’s degree was in social planning and policy, and he addressed housing and mental health needs, and started job training sessions for hospitality, maintenance, clerical, construction, culinary, and health care workers. His Hospitality Training Institute featured on-the-job experience at OIC facilities on North Broad Street — he called it the Opportunities Inn — and it continues to be praised by former clients.
The national OIC featured 44 programs in 22 states during his tenure, and his Philadelphia chapter also tutored students seeking a high school diploma and provided computers and internet access to underserved residents.
Mr. Nelson coordinated fundraising and championed public-private collaboration. He was an engaging public speaker, direct and plainspoken, and he appeared often at OIC conferences and public events.
“Helping people help themselves is just not a cliché but really an operating principle.”
He met three sitting U.S. presidents and three secretaries of state, and traveled to Ethiopia and Tanzania for the OIC. “I think people felt I lived in the basement of OIC,” he told the Daily News when he retired in 2014.
He left with a big send-off from colleagues and friends, and a citation from the City of Philadelphia. “I got to do things and meet people I never would have met if not for OIC,” he said in a farewell video.
But those weren’t the best rewards. “What you’ll get rich in,” he said in the video, “is knowing that every night that you go to sleep, during the course of that day, you’ve done something [to help] somebody else.”
Public relations executive A. Bruce Crawley told the Daily News in 2014. “The OIC might replace some of the administrative aspects of what that job might entail, but they won’t find another Bob. He’s a good man. I don’t say that easily about a lot of people.”
» READ MORE: Robert Nelson leaves as big a legacy as OIC founder
Mr. Nelson overcame prostate cancer about 25 years ago, became a patient care advocate, and established a support group and workshop. He spoke on radio and TV shows, and elsewhere about cancer, and said on his LinkedIn profile: “As a survivor I remain committed to sharing my experience, insights, and nonmedical counsel.”
He was chair of the Philadelphia Jobs Commission and North Central Philadelphia Empowerment Community Trust Board, and active with the Urban Affairs Coalition and other groups. His work was recognized over the years by the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, Multicultural Affairs Congress, and other organizations. He was inducted into the Camphor Memorial Church Hall of Fame in 2024.
Mr. Nelson joined the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Central State University in Ohio and served two years of active duty, from 1968 to 1970, and two years afterward in the reserves. He had a tour in Vietnam and earned a bronze star. He taught in Philadelphia pubic schools for a few years between college and the OIC.
“Whatever I did, good or bad, was always valuable,” Mr. Nelson said in 2014, “because I never lost focus.”
“We know we’ve made a big difference in the lives of people. Every conference will have people who will testify about what they got from OIC.”
Robert Conwell Nelson was born Feb. 23, 1944, in West Philadelphia. He grew up on North Frazier Street, played basketball whenever he could, and graduated from Central High School in 1962.
He joined the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education at Central State, and master’s degree at Temple in 1973. He married Sharon Newlin in 1968, and they had a son, Rob, in 1978. They divorced later.
Mr. Nelson enjoyed old movies and seafood, and was, by all accounts, a dapper dresser. He played the keyboard for years, followed the Eagles and 76ers closely, and enjoyed hashing over current events and politics.
“He had a quick fearless sense of humor and knew how to work the room,” his family said in a tribute. His son said: “My job now is to instill my sons with the same love, pride, and presence as you showed me.”
In addition to his son, Mr. Nelson is survived by two grandsons, a daughter-in-law, a sister, and other relatives.
Private services are to be held Friday, March 21.