Edward Thomas Chambers (April 2, 1930 – April 26, 2015) was the executive director of the Industrial Areas Foundation from 1972 to 2009, a community organizing group founded by Saul Alinsky.[1] Chambers was born in Clarion, Iowa to Thomas Chambers and Hazella Downing.[2] He is credited with developing systematic training of organizers and leaders of congregation-based community organizations, and establishing relational meetings (or "one-on-ones") as a critical practice of organizers. He is the author of Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice (Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003, ISBN0-8264-1499-0.[3]). A memorial article in The New Yorker called him "community organizing’s unforgiving hero." [4]
He died of heart failure in Drimoleague, Ireland in 2015.[2]