Lorin Douglas—also known as Calvin—recently passed away. He was 83.

Growing up on Camden Street, he often played at Carter Playground and was well-known at Charlie's Sandwich Shoppe in the South End as the "Turkey Hash Kid."

Although he dropped out of school early on, he learned to read from a friend who liked books and showed him the importance of reading. He became an avid reader. For example, he went out of his way to find me after he liked an article I wrote. We began sharing stories of "When the South End was the South End," as he liked to say. I was impressed with his amazing memory and accuracy. Sometimes I'd check something he told me and always found he was right.

He was an early practitioner of martial arts. Although not a member of the Nation of Islam, he was befriended by Ella Collins and spent time with Malcolm X's nephew Rodnell. In 1964 he and Rodnell painted 72 Dale Street in Roxbury. And he taught Arabic at the Sarah A. Little School in Chester Square.

In 1955, he worked in maintenance at the Huntington YMCA and then for 16 years at Harvard libraries. "There was almost no place you couldn't get a job back then," he said.

He lived at quite a few South End addresses: Worcester, Tremont, and West Springfield Streets, and then for 15 years at 507 Mass. Ave. before arthritis in his left hip forced him into a "power chair" and a move to the Frederick Douglass House on Tremont Street where he recently died.