‘I’m just a nice guy’

Derald Edwards owns a single apartment complex in his Eastside neighborhood, but his neighbors say he acts like he owns the entire block.

They’re not bitter about his attitude, though. In fact, the neighbors surprised him with a block party in his honor Sunday, which drew more than a few local residents who came to heap praise on the 78-year-old.

About 50 people, mostly from 21st Street, where Edwards lives, came to celebrate and share glowing testimonials of the man’s selfless deeds.

No one could understate Edwards’ contributions to the community more than the self-deprecating septuagenarian himself.

“I just keep the street clean from Newport Boulevard to Orange Avenue,” he said, pointing up and down the stretch of road that spans about three football fields.

This might be an apt generalization for his myriad daily deeds, but it certainly doesn’t explain the hours neighbors say he spends doing everything from mundane tasks like taking out their garbage and doing their gardening to large-scale undertakings like uprooting and disposing of unwanted trees and painting fences.

Mark Ruby, who lives on the street, credits Edwards with allowing him to be there to support his wife in the intensive care ward of the hospital as her father was dying of cancer. Ruby was at home with his sleeping infant son in the middle of the night, and he didn’t want to wake the boy and have him witness the traumatic event.

“My father-in-law was close to the end and my wife just said, ‘I need you here,’” Ruby said.

So in a last-ditch effort, Ruby walked to Edwards’ home and Edwards and his wife gladly volunteered to watch Ruby’s son while Ruby went to the hospital.

“I trust him like he was my father,” Ruby said, mentioning that there are few people he would allow to watch his children.

Donna Yelich, who owns a rental property down the street, said that Edwards removed a tree from the yard of her rental and planted roses. Another neighbor, Sally Warrick, said he got rid of an old mattress sitting in front of her house that no one wanted to pick up.

“It’s like he takes pride in ownership of the entire block,” Warrick said.

Joanna Fee, who went door-to-door distributing fliers about the block party around the community, said the response she got was overwhelmingly positive.

“Everyone was so grateful. They all said, ‘I’ve been wanting to do something for Derald for a while now,’” Fee said.

Edwards’ explanation of his generosity is simple.

“I’m just a nice guy,” he said.

“He’s always been like this, but this is the first thing like this that someone has done for him,” said his son Kirk, who attended the party.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].