About 30 years ago, Robert C. Embry Jr., the president of one of Baltimore’s most prominent philanthropic foundations, strolled up in a suit to the corner of Ashland Avenue and Rose Street, then an area where drug dealers announced the start of their business day by firing shots into the air, Clayton Guyton recalled.

Guyton, a corrections officer, and his friends were standing at the intersection to deter people from selling drugs and committing violence near a community space they established to help educate children and keep them safe. “It was like a war zone,” he said.

But the philanthropic leader, who goes by Bob, approached them without hesitation and asked how he could help with their mission.

“I know what you need; you need money,” Guyton recalled Embry saying.

With help from Embry and the Abell Foundation, Guyton expanded services provided by his organization, the Rose Street Community Center. Today, the neighborhood is one where residents regularly host cookouts near clean alleys and flower gardens, he said.

On Sunday, 87-year-old Embry — one of Baltimore’s most influential figures spanning decades — announced his retirement from the Abell Foundation.

Since he joined the foundation in 1987, it has grown from three employees to 17 and its assets have more than doubled to $350 million, Embry said. Last year, the foundation contributed about $16 million to health, economic and educational initiatives in Baltimore.

“For so many people and organizations across Baltimore, whether Bob personally or through the grant making at the Abell Foundation, he’s really been that springboard to future success,” said Matthew Gallagher, president and CEO of the Goldseker Foundation, who was only 22 when Embry first made time to meet with him. Goldseker is a Banner supporter.

“He’s the GOAT in terms of foundation leaders when it comes to Baltimore,” said Gallagher, using an acronym for “greatest of all time.”

Guyton, director of the Rose Street Community Center, credited Embry with not only providing more resources but also higher expectations for the neighborhood.

“He gave us the wind under our wings, our community’s wings, so that we could fly to the point where we could actually help people, not just one or two times but to continuously help,” Guyton said.

Embry will retire after the foundation’s board selects a new president, as first reported in the Baltimore Sun.

Embry decided to step down after seeing aging leaders, such as former President Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, hold on to their jobs for too long, he told The Baltimore Banner.

“I thought it was time to let somebody else have a shot at it,” he said.

Embry left fingerprints on projects across the city long before his philanthropic career. He has also held leadership positions on the Board of School Commissioners for Baltimore City, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development and the Maryland State Board of Education, according to his biography on the foundation’s website.

Many considered Embry to be “the architect of Mayor William Donald Schaefer’s Baltimore renaissance,” as described by the Washington Post in 1986. He played a role in the development of the subway system, a program that sold abandoned houses for $1 and Inner Harbor landmarks such as the National Aquarium and convention center, according to Baltimore Magazine.

“He’s just a super investor in Baltimore, and his commitment has virtually always been to try to improve Baltimore, where he grew up,” said Mark Joseph, who met Embry when they were both law clerks for federal judges in Baltimore and later worked under Embry at a newly formed Baltimore City Department of Housing and Community Development.

Sports agent Ronald Shapiro, who founded Baltimore law firm Shapiro Sher, said few people have played as big a role in shaping the city as Embry.

“Without leaders in the community to carry it out like Bob Embry, it wouldn’t be the Baltimore it is today,” Shapiro said.

After retirement, Embry said, he plans to do pro bono legal work for local nonprofit organizations.

When asked what he thinks his legacy will be, Embry responded: “I’ll have to think about that. I’m not there yet. I’m not finished.”

The Abell Foundation is a supporter of The Baltimore Banner.

This article will be updated.