He creates resolution out of conflict

Edward Deeb

Age: 65
Residence: Grosse Pointe Shores
Occupation: President, Michigan Food & Beverage Association and Michigan Business & Professional Association; Chairman, Eastern Market Merchants Association
Honored: For his volunteerism benefitting Metro Detroit youth, Eastern Market and Metro Detroit’s ethnic communities

dward Deeb doesn’t avoid confrontation. He dives straight into it.
When rioters targeted Detroit grocers in the 1960s, Deeb demanded the City Council hire more police or let vigilante justice do the job. The council shifted more patrols into troubled areas.

    Years later, a grape boycott led by union activist Cesar Chavez challenged Metro Detroit business owners and shoppers. Deeb mediated an end to the picketing.

    During the last decade, Deeb calmed relations between the Arab and black communities after scuffles between store owners and residents.

    Deeb, longtime head of the Michigan Food & Beverage Association, is one part Boy Scout and one part capitalist. His 40-year career has centered on balancing the needs of everyday people with those of small business.

    “When he does something, he does it with all of his heart,” Mark Dickow said.

    He and Deeb were among the founders of Friends of the Eastern Market, which supports the 160-year-old farmers group. Dickow also has been Deeb’s attorney and confidante for nearly two decades.

    “There’s no limit to what Ed will do,” Dickow said. “He does what he can and more.”

    Deeb balances work with a desire to change the world, one child at a time. His activism is inspired by his own upbringing — what he describes as a satisfying childhood of scouting, playing baseball, working in his parents’ stores.

    His father was a Syrian immigrant who moved to the United States to work in Henry Ford’s auto plants. After 24 years, Deeb’s parents went into business themselves, building three convenience stores.

    A devoted husband of 35 years and father of two grown children, Deeb said that today children grow up too quickly, mostly due to societal pressures. His goal is to give kids a peaceful place where they can run and play undisturbed — if only for one day. So he founded several groups and activities for young people, including Metro Detroit Youth Day, now in its 20th year.

    Deeb helped organize the event as a way of settling weeks of strife between area merchants and young people that resulted in at least one shooting. The Belle Isle event now attracts more than 18,000 participants.

    “We need these kids to feel there’s something better at the end of the rainbow if they work hard at it,” Deeb said.

    The Detroit native earned a degree in communication arts in 1960 from Michigan State University. He later served in the U.S. Air Force and next worked for a food-industry journal, working his way up to editor. In 1964, he was tapped to serve as president of the Michigan Food & Beverage Association and in 1987 helped found the Michigan Business & Professional Association.

    But his greatest life lessons came from inside his parents’ stores. Give customers what they want. Listen to people. Fix their problems. In other words, Deeb said, look for ways to bring the peace.

— Karen Talaski