Meva Moore Justice, retired Verizon manager, volunteer, musician, and mentor, has died at 64

Meva Moore Justice, 64, of Philadelphia, a retired multitalented manager at Verizon, volunteer, musician, and mentor, died Wednesday, July 20, of pancreatic cancer at her home.

Mrs. Justice was a supervisor at Bell of Pennsylvania and later Verizon for 35 years, retiring in 2015 as a technical marketing group project manager. She also worked in the engineering, regulatory, network planning, and management and product development departments, and was inducted into the Verizon Telecom Leaders Circle.

A lifelong organizer and motivator, and vocal in her support of education and equality, Mrs. Justice was cochair of the education committee for the Pennsylvania chapter of the Atlanta-based National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and a member of the Chicago-based Society of Women’s Engineering, and the Black Engineering Council.

Her family in 1960 became the second Black family to live in West Mount Airy, and Mrs. Justice championed diversity for the rest of her life. When she and her older sister, Nadene, were turned away from a white neighbor’s swimming pool, her father, a former Tuskegee Airman, built his own pool in the family’s backyard and eventually opened it to neighborhood children.

In a 1984 letter to The Inquirer’s editor, Mrs. Justice wrote: “I would like to inform the uninformed. Rev. [Jesse] Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition is alive and strong. It is black, brown, red, yellow and white, and it is beautiful.”

As an energetic volunteer and mentor, she advocated for personal accountability and increased education in science, technology, engineering, and math. She founded the Philadelphia-based Moore Justice for Youth organization, served on the board at the JYK Discovery Charter School in East Parkside, volunteered in the early literacy project at John Barry Elementary School in West Philadelphia, and inspired younger engineering students as an upperclassman at the University of Pittsburgh.

She was active in the women’s ministry and on the youth advocacy commission at Mount Carmel Baptist Church, and served as assistant director of children’s worship, primary department superintendent for the church school, and as a teacher at the vacation bible school. In an online tribute, a friend said: “The one thing I’ll always remember about Ms. Meva is her tremendous positivity and energy. From Sunday school to children’s worship to baseball games, she was always there, always supportive, and always made you feel like you belonged.”

A pianist and singer with a distinctive tenor voice, Mrs. Justice played in piano recitals as a young girl at the Settlement Music School. She sang in the Treble Clef Choir at Philadelphia High School for Girls, the Some of God’s Children gospel choir in college, and the women’s choir and chorus at church.

Born April 2, 1958, in Philadelphia, Meva Moore was the baby of a third generation raised together in the Nicetown home of her grandparents, who came to Philadelphia from Virginia during the Great Migration. She later moved with her family to West Mount Airy.

After Girls’ High, she minored in computer science at the University of Pittsburgh and graduated in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. She met fellow student Kenny Justice in college, and they married in 1981 and had sons Keith and Mark.

They lived at first in Yeadon and moved into her childhood home in West Mount Airy in 1991 when her parents moved to a smaller place down the street. She also studied business administration at Drexel University and took master’s-level courses in organizational dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mrs. Justice served as her family’s historian, sang at the Soulful Christmas program at the Kimmel Center for years, and was on the Girls’ High class reunion and alumni committees. She was witty and funny, and had a memorable twinkle in her eye. A friend wrote in an online tribute: “Knowing Meva and her family is a special gift in my life.”

She liked to garden and travel with family and longtime friends at Verizon. Her family said in a tribute: “She leaves behind an indelible legacy of integrity in public life, compassion and loyalty in private life, and diligence in all her chosen endeavors.”

Her husband said: “There were very few things she thought she could not achieve, and she reached for the stars. She saw the disparity in life and showed people how to work hard to change their position. She gave them inspiration.”

In addition to her husband, children, and sister, Mrs. Justice is survived by a grandson and other relatives.

Services were Monday, Aug. 1.

Donations in her name may be made to the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, P.O. Box 13108, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101.