Dora Elmandorf, longtime community activist, mentor, and founding board member of Concerned Citizens of North Camden, has died at 89
Despite her own troubles, she dedicated herself to helping others find their way when things got tough. “I feel like everyone is entitled to dignity," she said.
Dora Elmandorf, 89, of Camden, longtime community activist, inspirational founding board member of the Concerned Citizens of North Camden advocacy nonprofit, and mentor to many, died Saturday, June 25, of respiratory failure at Cooper University Hospital.
Ms. Elmandorf was an original board member when Concerned Citizens of North Camden was incorporated in December 1978 to address the community’s needs, including better housing, cleaner streets, more jobs, food for the hungry, and improved relations among neighbors.
She went on to perform and supervise the organization’s bookkeeping duties, mentor and counsel hundreds of colleagues and citizens, participate in many protests and civic activities, and contribute to CCNC and other groups in constructive ways.
She was active in CCNC’s campaigns to salvage or board up abandoned houses, provide legal aid for low-income residents, affect zoning decisions, build playgrounds, support farmers markets and affirmative-action initiatives, and promote heath and fire safety measures.
When city officials failed to respond to their grievances, Ms. Elmandorf and others protested in the streets, packed public meetings, circulated petitions, and enlisted community members in their projects. She participated in protests against the building of a prison near the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, inadequate health protections at Northeast Elementary School, and other issues.
She reveled in recalling that it took six police officers to remove and arrest her at a 1982 protest over the building of a prison on the Camden waterfront. “She fought for what she believed in,” said Irene Clark, a longtime colleague and friend. “She cared about people, and if you let her in, she tried to help anybody.”
A tireless contributor to the Leavenhouse Community, an affordable housing organization and food co-op, Ms. Elmandorf told The Inquirer in 2004: “I feel like everyone is entitled to dignity. People come here to get their lives back together. They get a decent job. They move on.”
Tom Knoche, another friend and longtime colleague at CCNC and Leavenhouse, said: “Her love was of the tough variety. But it was as true and consistent as love can be. She made me a better person.”
Born July 17, 1932, in Wilson, N.C., Dora Barnes moved to Camden with her father in the early 1940s. She dropped out of school after the eighth grade to work and moved to Milton, Del., when she was in her 20s. Later, she passed a general educational development test and earned a high school diploma from Camden’s Woodrow Wilson High School.
She married George Elmandorf, worked in several factory jobs, and they had son James LeRoy Barnes. Later, they divorced. Her former husband and son died earlier.
Ms. Elmandorf moved to North Camden in the 1970s, and, over the next two decades, was a vocal leader in the neighborhood. She ran a soup kitchen and a community laundromat for years and connected residents with a variety of affordable housing programs.
“She was always dedicated to helping others,” said her sister Lena Watkins.
Ms. Elmandorf liked to read and, as a member of the Mount Olivet Seventh-day Adventist Church, attended Bible study classes and prayed often for her friends and their families. She was gentle and warm, offered advice about life, but got angry at injustice and tolerated no nonsense regarding matters she considered important.
Her goal, she said often, was to help one person at a time. She requested that no service be held after her death and told people: “Give me flowers while I’m alive because when I’m dead I won’t be able to smell them.”
“She was a pillar of strength,” said Lillian Ubarry, another friend and fellow activist. Her niece, Carmisha Wright, called her “an icon of my life.”
Naturally good with numbers, Ms. Elmandorf was responsible for financial records detailing more than $1 million during her years at CCNC, and, according to Clark, her colleague, “was stern about the books.”
“I transcribed a number wrong one time, and she told me, ‘You’ve got to find every penny, Irene,’” Clark said. “‘Pennies add up,’ she said. She was tough and spicy. She was an influencer.”
Knoche said: “She was an unsung hero of grand proportions among those she touched over her many years in North Camden. Nobody knew her. She wasn’t famous. But she did extraordinary things.”
In addition to her sister and niece, Ms. Elmandorf is survived by a brother and other relatives. Three sisters and two brothers died earlier.