Joshua Powell, 70, former leader of All Dorchester Sports League – The Boston Globe

“Josh had a soft spot for kids who needed that extra push,” recalled Cary McConnell, a former Suffolk University baseball coach whom Mr. Powell served as pitching coach from 1996 to 2006. “He preached education, using sports as the vehicle to a degree, and our athletes fed off his low-key and confident demeanor.”

Mr. Powell, a strong advocate of using athletics to integrate youths of all races from Boston’s neighborhoods, died of a heart attack Jan. 30 in his Dorchester home. He was 70.

He was always on the go, according to his family and colleagues. In 2003, Globe columnist Sam Allis described Mr. Powell’s geographic range as he traveled from neighborhood to neighborhood searching for talented young players, and his effect far from his home base.

“Josh Powell, it should be said, is the All Dorchester Sports League,” Allis wrote. “He has run it from the start after earlier stints as an English teacher in Ecuador and the director of a halfway house in Dorchester, among other pursuits.” Mr. Powell, Allis added, “moves and speaks with economy. His passion to rescue kids from the streets and point them toward college is measured in commitment, not words.”

The All Dorchester Sports League added an education resource center in 1997. Since then, the Boston Foundation awarded the organization an Out of the Blue grant that is earmarked for groups that make a difference in the community.

“Josh embodied the philosophy which we still follow today, to see the potential in all kids who come through our doors and to foster an environment which allows them to see each other as teammates, and not adversaries,” Candice Gartley, the league’s current executive director.

Often, Mr. Powell’s contact with young athletes began when he asked their name and extended his hand.

Jerome Hicks was 12 when he dropped over to Town Field in Dorchester one day in 1991 to watch a Park League game.

“Josh asked if I would shag foul balls. That led to my becoming a coach and recruiter with him. It set me on a path. He had a love for baseball and a passion for teaching,” said Hicks, who served on the ADSL board, umpired games with his mentor, and went on to coach high school and college baseball.

Mr. Powell formerly taught in the Boston, Randolph, and Quincy school systems, and had been an associate scout for the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, and Los Angeles Angels.

An avid baseball card collector, he inherited a love for the game from his grandfather, former Negro League player Harvey Nobles, whom he would visit during the summers in Aiken, S.C.

Mr. Powell was a past president and recipient of three major awards from the Park League, and formerly pitched and coached in the Boston Junior Park League.

“Baseball was his calling,” said his close friend Ed Neal, manager of the league’s Padres team. “He was a pioneer who loved bringing kids from Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roxbury into the Park League, which became more diverse and more representative of the city.”

Because of that diversity, families of players on the All Dorchester Sports League team brought and shared ethnic foods at Park League games, Mr. Powell said in a 1993 interview with the Boston Red Sox’ Scorecard Magazine. “There is not much structure for players in the minority community after the age of 12,” he told the magazine. “With all the distractions, it’s easy for kids to go astray.”

Competing in the league, he added, “provides them with an opportunity that they might not get otherwise.”

Born in Boston, Mr. Powell had lived in Dorchester since 1958. A Boston English High graduate, he received a bachelor’s degree from Boston State College.

His three marriages ended in divorce.

At Suffolk University, Mr. Powell’s pitching staff led the nation’s Division 3 teams in earned run average in 2000. He was also an assistant coach for Neal at Roxbury Community College, and a special assistant to the University of Massachusetts Boston baseball program.

“Josh was a great connector of people, and he never beat his own drum,” said Charlie Titus, UMass-Boston’s vice chancellor for athletics and recreation.

Mr. Powell umpired and held clinics in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Curacao, and during the past two summers he helped out at Red Sox Foundation clinics in Boston’s North End.

The clinic director, Harvey Soolman, a veteran Park League player and manager, called Mr. Powell “our league’s go-to guy when you were evaluating a player. And if he just shrugged his shoulders, you knew the answer.”

Mr. Powell leaves his mother, Mattie (Nobles) of Boston; three daughters, Lesa of Lithonia, Ga., Keisha Powell-Burgess of Boston, and Kira of Los Angeles; three sons Joshua IV of Boston, Armondo of Alexandria, Va., and Jarrod of Los Angeles; a brother, Tyrone of Queens, N.Y.; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A service has been held, and burial was in Forest Hills Cemetery.

“Dad taught us to question what you know and to recognize that there are always two sides to every story,” his son Jarrod said.

Kira said their father was devoted to Christian Science and “calmly and effectively dealt with life’s stresses because of that strong spiritual foundation. I thank him for giving me the ability to bring peace and stillness to whatever challenges I face in life.”

Mr. Powell’s daughter Lesa recalled that no matter where his travels took him, “he made it a priority to always answer when we called, whether on the field or in another country. He wasn’t just dad, he was our friend.”