After decades spent representing Baltimore in elected office, Melvin Stukes knew one thing for certain: Working together works.

Before the 76-year-old died Sept. 21 at his home in Pikesville, Stukes built a career in local and state politics by uniting communities to solve problems from the ground up to the highest levels of state office. Family members this week said Stukes never slowed down his work, even after retiring from public office. His death was unexpected.

“If you had to identify somebody who personified a happy political warrior, that was Melvin,” said University of Baltimore President Kurt Schmoke. Schmoke’s political career as a three-term mayor of Baltimore overlapped with Stukes’ time spent on the Baltimore City Council.

Stukes was born in Baltimore on March 15, 1948. He attended segregated schools in South Carolina and graduated in 1965 from Scott’s Branch High School in Summerton.

Years earlier, his alma mater had featured prominently in the 1952 Briggs v. Elliott court case, which held South Carolina’s racially segregated schools did not violate the 14th Amendment. Despite the unfavorable ruling, the case was the first of its kind to challenge the constitutionality of racially segregating students. It ultimately paved the way for the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954.

Stukes understood the importance of the case and, later in life, organized educational events, including a seminar on Briggs v. Elliott, for his fellow alumni. Black history in the United States was very important to him, having grown up in the Jim Crow-era south, his daughter Tauraine Stukes said Thursday.

“It wasn’t just something he forgot about as he got older,” she said. “It stuck with him. He made sure people understood how things were. He did not want people, especially the Black community, to forget what their history was.”

After graduating high school, Stukes served four years in the United States Air Force before being honorably discharged in 1969. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Baltimore’s Morgan State University, landed a job in 1975 with Maryland’s Revenue Administration Division and later worked for the Maryland Transit Administration.

In 1979, Stukes become a founding member and officer for the Cherry Hill Improvement Association. His neighborhood in Southeast Baltimore had been shaped by Jim Crow-era segregation laws and was home to many Black veterans. In his newfound role as a social activist, he spoke out against what he saw as a systemic withdrawal of services from the neighborhood. During the 1980s, he led aggressive grassroot campaigns on behalf of Black communities.

“He understood the strength that comes from having unity in the community,” Tauraine Stukes said.

In 1991, Stukes became the Baltimore City Council’s first Black candidate elected to represent the 6th district and served until 2004. Voters went on to elect him to the Maryland House of Delegates representing District 41, which includes parts of North and West Baltimore, in 2006, and he served there until 2015.

House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne Jones took to social media Sept. 24 to share news of Stukes’ death and mourn his passing.

“The Balt region lost a giant with the passing of former Del. Melvin Stukes,” Jones said in tweet. “Del. Stukes was a true public servant who always put Baltimore and his constituents first. I was proud to call him a friend and will miss seeing him at Union Bethel AME Church.”

Schmoke suspected that when it came to politics, Stukes’ “true love” was serving on the City Council rather than the General Assembly.

“He got to deal directly with city agencies that were working on citizen problems day in and day out,” Schmoke said. “He particularly was proud of his work in Cherry Hill, he had this great vision of an improved community, lower crime rates, higher home ownership.”

More importantly, Schmoke remembered Stukes as a man who lived by his own creed: People can accomplish anything when they come together. Working together works.

“That was his motto,” Schmoke said.

Stukes is survived by his wife, Catherine DeFord Stukes; daughters Tauraine and Marian Stukes; stepchildren Kevin DeFord and Shelia Cofield; sisters Sandra Chipungu (Stafford), Joan Stukes-Maurice (Alix) and Mercedes Eugenia, as well as a host of step-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins and adopted family and friends.

A wake and funeral will be held for Stukes on Tuesday at the Union Bethel AME Church in Randallstown starting at 10 a.m. There will also be a live stream to view the services.