Joel Odum, Class of '67 passed away on Christmas Day. His Memorial SERVICE is in Washington D.C. on January 17th. See Washington Post Obit below.  Stella Russell (Class of '66)       Bart Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 3, 2004; Page B04

Joel Odum, 54, a lawyer and civic activist who battled high-density development along the Wisconsin Avenue NW corridor, died of complications of meningitis Dec. 25 at his Washington home.Mr. Odum also was an artist who specialized in depicting buildings and architecture in a style that was described as both abstract and personal and that was marked by the use of bright colors. His art was exhibited at galleries in the Washington area and elsewhere.

He was a Democratic Party operative and former executive of the General Services Administration. In 1997, he was chief operating officer of a GSA committee for President Bill Clinton's second inauguration.

Mr. Odum, a native of Fort Bragg, N.C., grew up in Birmingham during the racially turbulent 1950s and 1960s. He talked with an Alabama drawl that friends said lent authenticity and credibility to his pronouncements.

D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson remembers that Mr. Odum showed up with a rope several years ago at a protest against a development project west of Rock Creek Park. "I'm gonna tie myself to a tree," Mr. Odum announced.

In fact, Mendelson said, Mr. Odum did not tie himself to a tree, but everyone assumed that he had. It later became part of the Joel Odum personal legend that he had once tried to thwart a development project by tying himself to a tree. After losing a court case once, Mr. Odum walked out of the courthouse and announced before the television cameras, "We won," and he managed, somehow, to make people believe it.

As a young man, Mr. Odum studied modern architecture, design and drafting at the New York School of Interior Design. But he returned to Alabama and graduated from the University of Alabama and its law school.

He was active in Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign and came to Washington in 1977 as a special assistant to first lady Rosalynn Carter. Later, he held a variety of positions, including legislative coordinator at the Department of Transportation and development coordinator for the D.C. government.

He was deputy director of operations in the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign, and his work included assigning and scheduling speakers for hundreds of political events and coordinating the activities of the Washington office.

In 1993, he joined the General Services Administration, where his jobs included acting associate administrator of the Office of Business and Industry Outreach, assistant commissioner for external affairs for the Public Buildings Service and senior adviser.

He had served in Washington on the Mayor's Homelessness Task Force.

As a community activist, Mr. Odum battled for the preservation of parkland and other open space and against high-density development along Wisconsin Avenue. In 1987, he was among a handful of protesters arrested while trying to stop construction of a road at the northern entrance to Glover Archbold Park. His conviction in that case was reversed by the D.C. Court of Appeals.

In the early 1990s, he created a nonprofit organization for environmental education, and he hosted a weekly television program that focused on issues affecting the environment and land-use planning.

He was a co-founder of the Tenleytown Historical Society, and in 1990, he was named Tenleytown citizen of the year. In 1988, 1989 and 1990, Mr. Odum was listed in Regardie's magazine as one of the 100 "most influential people in private Washington."

In 1979, Mr. Odum began a process of educating himself as an artist, and he traveled extensively in Europe, the United States and Canada studying art. But he first learned to mix colors while painting apartments as a high school student.

His paintings can be found in the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Carter Center in Atlanta, the GSA and in several private collections.

Survivors include his companion of 20 years, Frank McCarthy of Washington, and three brothers in Alabama.