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From Brooklyn Restoration to Ford Foundation Franklin Augustine Thomas By JOHN KIFNER When President Carter asked him to become Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Franklin Augustine Thomas turned him down because, he recalled yesterday, the Cabinet post was not "what the last 10 years has positioned me to be able to do." Man in the News "Two things went through my mind," said Mr. Thomas, who spent most of that decade heading the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. "Did I think I could make a unique difference? I didn't see that I could. And, as I envisioned how my time would be spent, it seemed to me I would be spending half my time or more testifying before committees of Congress about existing programs, a lot of which I have questions about." But when the Ford Foundation, after a yearlong search, offered him its presidency, Mr. Thomas said, "All the vibrations felt right to me." "It's an opportunity to build on this crazy, accidental combination of experiences I've had in an institution that's potentially very flexible in its resources," he said. "The foundation can be an initiator of activities, open to risk-taking. It can change directions without having to write new legislation." A Long Way From Brooklyn It is a long way from the macadam playgrounds of Bedford-Stuyvesant, where Frank Thomas learned to play basketball, to the spectacular headquarters on East 42nd Street of the nation's richest and most influential foundation. Mr. Thomas made the journey with seeming smoothness. A basketball star at Columbia University — captain and All-Ivy — he went on to become an assistant United States Attorney, a deputy Police Commissioner, and then the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy's choice to head the private, experimental corporation he was setting up to find ways to revitalize the decaying, riot-ruined black section of Brooklyn. When he left the restoration corporation at the end of 1976, after 10 years and the expenditure of some $63 million in public and private funds, Mr. Thomas could point to a number of accomplishments. The corporation helped establish 116 businesses and 3,300 jobs, along with a $6 million commercial complex. It placed almost 7,000 neighborhood residents in jobs or training programs. It renovated the exteriors of 3,337 homes on 96 blocks, employing or training 4,364 residents, and it provided more than 660 new or rehabilitated housing units. Its Reputation Preserved The corporation's first years were marked by fierce political battles, with some young blacks accusing Restoration's leadership — and Mr. Thomas himself — of being too close to the white establishment. Now, while it has hardly solved all of the neighborhood's problems, the corporation is one of the few antipoverty efforts of the heady days of the late 1960's to emerge with its reputation intact. Mr. Thomas was born on May 27, 1934, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where he still lives, although now in a tastefully restored brownstone. At about the age of 12, he remembered, he discovered he was a pretty good basketball player, and from then on he spent much of every day on the playground, honing his skills at the city game. "I proudly retain the rebounding record at Columbia to this day," said Mr. Thomas, who played in high school days at Franklin K. Lane, where he was also the captain. In the days when he grew up, Bedford-Stuyvesant was street-gang territory and moving between rival turfs could be dangerous. Mr. Thomas, however, was attracted to the Boy Scouts by the flashy drum and bugle corps, a fixture of neighborhood parades. Honors in Law School After graduating from Columbia in 1956, Mr. Thomas took an R.O.T.C. commission in the Air Force, serving as a navigator on Strategic Air Command refueling flights over the Arctic Circle. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1963 with moot court honors. He went first to the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency as a lawyer, then in 1964 to the United States Attorney's office for the Southern District. There he attracted the attention of the chief assistant, Vincent L. Broderick. After Mr. Broderick became Police Commissioner, he named Mr. Thomas the deputy commissioner for legal matters. After two years in the post, he moved to the new Restoration corporation in 1967. His marriage to the former Dawn Conrada ended in divorce in 1972. The couple had four children: two boys and two girls. The oldest, Keith, 21 years old, is a student at Montclair State College. Hillary, 12, Kerrie, 11, and Kyle, 9, live with their mother in New Jersey. In private law practice for the last two years, Mr. Thomas has spent much of his time helping small community-based organizations develop the skills they need to get money from banks and foundations to run economic-development programs. In his free time, he is clearing land and building himself a country place in Dutchess County, and, he says, "learning the game of tennis." Moving Up... [[image]] [[caption]] FRANKLIN AUGUSTINE THOMAS [[/caption]] 65
