Remember Major Dave...

David Birmingham, 66, was tireless advocate for Orlando area's homeless

Monica Scandlen Special To The Sentinel
November 13, 2007

For almost 46 years, David and Thelma Birmingham were a team.They began their married life in Germany, where he was stationed with the U.S. Army, and attended the Salvation Army College in Atlanta together, served in a half-dozen cities with the Salvation Army and worked together for Oral Roberts' ministry and university.Monday, that partnership ended.

David Birmingham, a tireless advocate for those less fortunate, died of complications from diabetes, his wife said. The Salvation Army's former area commander for Orange and Osceola counties and the former interim president/CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida was 66."He was a fighter and he really fought so much. He wanted to live and he wanted to do more ministry," said Thelma Birmingham of Ocoee. "There was so much more he wanted to do. His life was really cut short."

David Birmingham's service with the organization began in 1968 when he and his wife were assigned to Washington, D.C., where they worked with people addicted to drugs and alcohol, many of whom were homeless.Ensuing stations with the Salvation Army took them around the Southeast, with some years in between working for Oral Roberts.

An Ohio native, Birmingham came to Central Florida in 2000 from Atlanta to lead the Salvation Army's Orlando office. He and his wife quickly made an impact, said Lenora Sherman, the organization's finance director.They started a volunteer women's auxiliary group and worked hard to raise money to build a transitional shelter for homeless families, which has yet to be built."His dream was to try to meet even more needs," Sherman recalled.

"He was always trying to find ways to fund things and develop new monies. He just shook the bushes for it all."Fundraising was challenging in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 and the busy hurricane season of 2004, but David Birmingham wasn't discouraged. He kept in sight his goal of building the new shelter, for which the Salvation Army bought property in Orlando.

In 2005, the couple retired. Thelma had been diagnosed with uterine cancer the year before and David felt he was slowing down, too, and thought someone younger should take the reins, Thelma Birmingham said.Her husband's retirement didn't last long. In March 2006, he became the interim president and CEO of the homeless coalition -- a position he held for six months.

In August of that year, he wrote to the Orlando Sentinel advocating "long-term solutions, not short-term handouts.""As well intentioned as it may seem, passing out a meal in a park, or out of the back of your car, will not help the homeless. This is about more than a bed and a meal; it's about providing access to services that exist in the community and the skills necessary to live a self-sufficient life," David Birmingham wrote."What should Central Florida do about the homeless? I can tell you what we do right now. Homeless-services providers, such as the Coalition, provide individual case management to address a variety of challenges, from employability to education and counseling."He concluded: "The key is viewing homeless-services providers in the community as the solution, not the problem."

His wife said he had hoped to include those ideas and others in a book about planned giving that he wanted to write before he died.David Birmingham is also survived by son Greg Birmingham of Ocoee; and sister Janet Grabel and brother Dean Birmingham, both of Akron, Ohio. Dobbs Funeral Home, Orlando, is handling arrangements.