Obi Henderson, a Chicago native who traveled to Charleston and overcame obstacles in the way of his future success, died Monday night in a car crash off Corridor G.
The South Charleston Police Department confirmed his death in a news release Tuesday morning. He was 31.
Henderson was known not only for his struggle with violence in Chicago and his homelessness in West Virginia, but also his drive to learn from the past and help others achieve their own success.
Henderson graduated from Alabama A&M and moved to Charleston for an internship with AmeriCorps at the age of 25.
He once said a "bad decision" involving a company vehicle lost him the internship and put him on the streets.
Henderson endured sleepless nights surrounded by snoring and bedbugs in a shelter, but his decisions over the next six months helped him trade earplugs and bug bites for dress shirts and ties.
His life then revolved around running his new charity, starting a business and mentoring West Virginia's youth.
He also fought to hold the title of heavyweight champion of the Charleston Rough N' Rowdy Brawl in 2015.
The Kiwanis Club of West Charleston announced Tuesday that Henderson would have been its next president in October.
As of this month he was about six weeks away from moving into his own home from Habitat for Humanity of Kanawha and Putnam, said Shawn Means, the organization's executive director.
"When we got the news this morning we were actually in a staff meeting talking about how much longer it was going to be to wrap up his house," he said.
Means said the process of building and earning a Habitat for Humanity home is no easy task, and the time Henderson spent working in the community likely made it even tougher.
He last worked on the house Thursday.
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At about 10:45 p.m. Monday, Henderson's car crossed all four lanes of Corridor G and drove over a hill.
The car caught fire in a wooded area between Corridor G and Ruthdale Road. No other injuries were reported, and the investigation is still ongoing, the release states.
His friend Eric Murphy fought tears Tuesday when he described Henderson as a pillar of the community and a surrogate father to its children.
Murphy, a Monongalia County extension agent for families and health, said Henderson was interested in youth who faced hardships at a young age.
He carried the burden of children who witnessed murders or struggled to find the resources for a meaningful future, Murphy said.
"The West Side of Charleston is the birthplace of five different plantations, so you have generational self-hate that they have learned from Willie Lynch - from the Willie Lynch laws," he said. "So he was going upstream to counter a philosophy that was created to break generations of Africans."
When 62-year-old William Pulliam shot and killed 15-year-old James Means in 2016 in Charleston's East End, Henderson set out to heal the community.
Henderson had launched DREAMS Community Development Corp. the year before. He said then that James wanted to take part in the organization, which helped young people in disadvantaged communities improve their leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
The boy had his life stolen, Henderson said at the time, and such violence could not continue.
Henderson knew some people didn't value James' life or the lives of other children in the community, and he took the death to heart, Murphy said.
"As a strong elder in the community, I think Obi wanted to put that on his shoulders and say 'I'm here for you,' and he got overwhelmed," he said.
Henderson lost his best friend to a shooting when he lived in Chicago. He found similar violence in West Virginia, but he grasped onto hope.
Murphy said people in the black community rarely are vocal about their struggles because it could be seen as a sign of weakness.
He said Henderson started a dialogue and assured children their problems mattered.
Not even Henderson had all the answers, Murphy said, but he knew the importance of striving for excellence and equality - no matter how tiring it became.
"You have to stay strong because your community depends on it," he said. "If anything, I would say for Obi it is persist to resist."
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In Rev. Matthew Watts' decades of work in the community, he never met someone quite like Henderson.
Watts, of Grace Bible Church, gave Henderson one of his first grants with the goal of helping students at Chandler Academy.
"He touched the most troubled young people in this city," Watts said.
He described Henderson as a mix between Peter Pan and the Pied Piper; someone who harnessed the creativity of a child and the motivation of a mature adult.
In the aftermath of his death, it's important to focus on the positive changes he pioneered in West Virginia, Watts said.
"We don't have any excuse for not doing more to help our most challenged young people, because he made it plain and clear to us, and he gave us an example of how we should approach it," he said.
Reach Giuseppe Sabella at giuseppe.sabella@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @Gsabella on Twitter.