By Thea Jarvis

John Edmunds, a retired lawyer with eight years of volunteer service at Catholic Social Services, is the recipient of J.C. Penney’s 11th annual Volunteer of the Year award.

Edmunds, 72, a retired regional counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was chosen from a field of over 100 nominees for his work with immigrants and the indigent.

“John puts in at least 20 hours a week here as a volunteer,” said Steve Brazen, executive director of Catholic Social Services and archdiocesan Secretary for Social Concerns. “His life is a demonstration of what real retirement is like.”

Edmunds, a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Yale Law School, came to Atlanta in 1955. He and his wife of 42 years, Jean, have two sons and four grandchildren.

The Volunteer of the Year citation is part of a grant co-sponsored by J.C. Penney and the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta. The awards recognize individuals and organizations exemplifying a genuine spirit of volunteerism. Along with other local winners from around the country, Edmunds is now eligible for a National Golden Rule Award.

In accepting the award, Edmunds referred to the wave of xenophobia currently gripping the country and said his experience with immigrants and refugees has led him to respect, not fear, these newcomers.

“Almost all of the immigrants whom I see work hard, hold two jobs, get on the bottom rung of the economic ladder and work up, learn to speak English promptly, obey the law, lead moral lives, believe strongly in education, raise children who make high grades in science courses and do well in college, and appreciate living in the United States more than many of us born in this country do,” he said.

He added that being recognized for working with such admirable people is “a delightful was to spend retirement.”

Edmunds’ extensive legal background now enables him to assist immigrants and refugees facing a maze of governmental regulations and cultural adaptations, counseling them in minor court cases and guiding them through a complicated U.S. judicial system.

As HUD’s regional counsel for the Southeast, a job he held until retirement in 1984, Edmunds increased access to public housing. In retirement, he continues to pursue this option of the poor, serving on the board of Catholic Housing Initiatives (CHI), which develops affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families.

His professional employment gave him the sense that he was doing good, improving the life of the city through urban renewal, Edmunds said, but he rarely had contact with the people he helped.

In his present volunteer capacity, “you have someone sitting right in front of you,” he said. “It’s delightful to feel a the end of the day there’s someone counting on you.”

A case he worked on earlier this year involved a woman in her late twenties who had arrived in Atlanta from Scranton, Pa. Pregnant, without work or food, she came upon a checkbook in the parking lot of Winn-Dixie store and forged a check. She was caught and eventually incarcerated at the Fulton County Jail.

Edmunds made it clear that he is not overly comfortable with criminal cases, but the woman’s circumstances moved him.

“She was living in a vacant warehouse,” he explained, and appeared to be mildly retarded. At the jail, “they did not seem to care that she was pregnant,” he said. There was no prenatal care for the woman in the two months she spent there.

Edmunds worked with a public defender from Fulton County and the woman pleaded guilty, receiving a probated sentence to be served in Scanton. She now lives with her mother and is expecting her baby soon.

“She was most grateful,” Edmunds said. “That’s the best part of what I do.”

A current case involves a client from Ethiopia who supports his wife and two children in Africa with earnings from his work at a metro farmer’s market. After an automobile accident that resulted in extensive exploratory surgery, the man faced bills from several medical providers. He has no insurance and his limited English and knowledge of the legal system left him few options.

Edmunds helped him make contact with physicians and the hospital that gave him care, arranging a payment schedule the man could handle each month.

“John helps people who fall through the cracks,” people who don’t qualify for legal aid or have issues most attorneys wouldn’t touch, said Sue Colussy, director of Immigration Services, one of two CSS units to nominate Edmunds for the award.

“He’s the kindest, gentlest man,” said Rhoda Donnelly, a licensed social worker with Migration and Refugee Services who works with Edmunds. “Everyone instantly respects him,” she said, which is what makes him such a successful advocate.

Edmunds admits being wary of life after retirement.

“I had the feeling I was going to drop into oblivion,” he said.

He had undergone bypass surgery the year before he retired and had been told by doctors he had to exercise to stay alive.

Today, eight years into retirement, he walks between one and three miles a day and is involved in a multitude of church and community organizations.

Rev. William Johnson, pastor of Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church, where Edmunds and his wife are longtime members, said the award-winner is a “man who lives his faith.”

A church elder and Oglethorpe’s legal advisor, Edmunds carries out his tasks “in such a way that it’s low-key,” Rev. Johnson said.

Jean Edmunds, who attended the April 29 awards luncheon at the World Congress Center in Atlanta, was happy at her husband’s recognition.

“We were not surprised, knowing him,” she said of her family’s reaction, but they were glad others were appreciative of him as well.

Catholic Social Services, she said, “welcomed him with open arms” eight years ago. “He was really needed there.”

Edmunds agreed. “It was a niche I could be useful in,” he said.