My close friend, Foster Corbin, the former longtime director of Atlanta's Metro Fair Housing Services and a passionate advocate for the rights of others, died Feb. 16. He was 76.

A memorial service will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at A.S. Turner & Sons Funeral Home in Decatur.

Corbin, an East Point attorney who was working as a mediator for The Justice Center of Atlanta, Fulton County and Clayton County when he died, invested his life in people. He was dedicated to social justice and civil rights and was a champion for the poor and disenfranchised.

Growing up in Morristown, Tennessee, Corbin—who had a twin brother, Frank—was recognized for his intellect and talent. Never afraid to try something new, he reinvented himself several times over the course of his life. Corbin received a bachelor's degree from Carson-Newman College and a master's degree from the University of Tennessee. He also served in the U.S. Air Force, where he worked in intelligence as a Russian translator.

After leaving the military, he embarked on a teaching career, first at Central Missouri State College and then Jacksonville University in Florida.

After moving to Atlanta during the 1970s, Corbin worked as a court reporter while attending Woodrow Wilson College of Law at night. He received his J.D. in 1977.

Active in Atlanta's LBGT community, Corbin marched in one of the first of what would be many Gay Pride parades he would attend over the course of his life. He was a volunteer at the Atlanta Gay Center, where he spent untold hours handling the center's help-line calls and editing its newspaper. He lost dozens of friends to AIDS, which he referred to as the gay community's “Holocaust” and ”Vietnam.” The losses instilled in him a dedication to attend AIDS Memorial Quilt displays annually in remembrance of those who died.

From 1990 until his retirement in 2011, he worked at Metro Fair Housing Services, an agency  that fights against discrimination in housing and lending practices.

Corbin was a true Renaissance man. An avid reader, he rose to become one of Amazon's 300 top reviewers, and by 2013 had written more than 1,200 book reviews. He used his teaching skills and love of language to teach people to read and to speak English as a second language. He was an excellent storyteller, with a sharp wit and an affinity for sarcasm and puns.

He had a passion for the arts and an eclectic taste in music that made him equally at home at a bluegrass show or a classical concert.

His eye for photography distinguished him as a true artist—an amateur only by virtue of the fact that he rarely, if ever, sold his photos but rather gave them away to his subjects, whether they were friends or strangers.

With a book under one arm and a camera perennially slung over his shoulder, he engaged people and captured their inner light.

He was also a baker by hobby, becoming renowned among his friends for his cheesecakes that he reveled in baking before delivering them to dinner parties where he was always a welcome addition.

Corbin was, in his own way, an adventurer—traveling via his books, through photos, through works of art he acquired or visited in galleries and museums, tramping through cities and neighborhoods across the world and then sharing his wry, quirky or profound observations with his expansive network of friends and acquaintances.

French diarist Anais Nin once wrote about herself in a line that captures Corbin best:  “I'm restless. Things are calling me away. My hair is being  pulled by stars again.”'

In  lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Lost-n-Found Youth, an Atlanta nonprofit that works to end homelessness and provide crisis support for the LGBTQ youth ages 13-25.  Donations may be made at https://lnfy.org/donate/.