Buffalo loses devoted youth, anti-violence advocate Neal Dobbins

The first batch of 100 tickets sold out in an hour or two. Meadors, who handled printing the tickets for the fundraiser, said Dobbins quickly came back for 100 more, then 20 minutes after that for another 100.

"I don't care whether they have a car or not, they're going to buy a ticket. I've got to get this done," Meadors remembered Dobbins telling her.

By the end, the effort generated tens of thousands of dollars – enough to pave the mosque's entire parking lot.

"His passion was enough to compel you," Meadors said.

Dobbins, an advocate for Buffalo's young people and crusader against gun violence, died Tuesday at Erie County Medical Center after a brief illness. He was 61.

Dobbins, who founded the organization Most Valuable Parents of Buffalo, was a longtime anti-violence advocate.

He worked to get young people off the street, taught parenting classes, mentored young men and organized activities and events involving basketball for young people.

Dobbins' organization was getting ready to partner with the city for a summer mentoring program called Skills and Drills, which combined basketball and mentoring with the mayor's summer youth employment program, said Meadors, an MVP member who worked closely with Dobbins.

When Dobbins and Meadors went out to eat weekly, Dobbins regularly invited people who were hungry to sit down and eat with them, Meadors said. He also regularly pulled over his car when he saw people on the street having a dispute and got them to resolve their differences, she said.

Dobbins also was not shy about challenging people's belief systems.

"He said what needed to be said when it needed to be said when others wouldn't," she said.

He also had a skill of retaining information, like a "walking encyclopedia," Meadors said.

Last year, Dobbins took in a sick family member at his home in order to help provide care.

Dobbins was one of the founders of the Stop the Violence Coalition and was a member of the Buffalo Peacemakers, said Pastor James Giles, who knew Dobbins for two decades.

Dobbins was "full of zeal" and dedicated to anti-violence efforts, Giles said.

The MVP organization, founded in 2018, was about to celebrate the completion of its third year of work in the city when its founder fell ill.

Dobbins' death drew public statements from community leaders and elected officials.

"I offer my deepest condolences to family and friends of Neal Dobbins," Mayor Byron W. Brown said in a written statement. "Neal was a passionate and dedicated advocate for youth, families and violence prevention. As president of the MVP organization, he touched thousands of lives. I met with and spoke to Neal frequently over the years. He will be sorely missed by many, including me."

Paul McQuillen, of the advocacy group Gun Sense NY, said Dobbins was devoted and shared hopes for a more peaceful environment free of gun violence.

"Neal was a true inspiration to so many in our community and in the family of gun violence prevention advocates," McQuillen said in an email.

Dobbins carried the memory of one of his sons with him.

Neal Dobbins Jr. was killed in a shooting in February 2003 at 25.

Dobbins posted on Facebook on April 1, what would have been his son's 44th birthday, sharing a previous post with photos of his son as a child and a young man.

"Daddy will always be motivated by you, son," Dobbins wrote in the original 2019 post on his son's birthday. "I can hear your voice: 'Yo, daddy, slow down. Take it easy, man.' You were always smoother than me!"

Dobbins had been fighting for the repeal of what's known as the Tiahrt Amendment, a provision in federal law that advocates say keeps the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from publicly disclosing a gun tracing database that contains important information that would help limit the flow of illegal guns and bring public scrutiny on unscrupulous gun dealers.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Byron Lockwood recently had a meeting with Dobbins, Giles, the mayor and an ATF representative to talk about illegal handguns. Dobbins brought up a recent lawsuit that the City of Chicago filed against a gun dealer.

"He was really out there trying to make a change," Lockwood said.

"Neal's heart was in the right place. He wanted to get these handguns off the street. He was working very hard at it," Lockwood added. "I was very impressed with how much he knew about where these guns were coming from. He did his homework. He's going to be missed."

Dobbins' efforts creating and growing MVP helped counter a lack of parental involvement and engagement with the city's public schools, Buffalo School Board President Sharon Belton-Cottman said.

"Neal was the people's hero and the people's leader," Belton-Cottman said.

Dobbins worked to uplift people and make sure they worked together, she said. He worked with young men who grew up without fathers and many who had previously been incarcerated.

"When I look at the amount of boys whose lives he's touched," Belton-Cottman said. "He's made men."

Dobbins is survived by his wife, Monica, and several children.

News staff reporter Maki Becker contributed to this report.