Noted Community Leader Honored with Service of Remembrance
Area residents will honor the memory of Reverend Dr. Nilous M. Avery, Sr., who served as pastor of Hill Street Missionary Baptist Church of Asheville for 51 years.
Dr. Avery received his religious calling at the age of 15 at Wake Baptist Grove Church in Garner, NC. He earned a BA, and both Bachelors and Masters of Divinity degrees, from Shaw University in Raleigh, where he also met his wife of 60 years, Mrs. Christine Watson Avery, also deceased. Reverend Avery earned a Doctorate in Psychology and Pastoral Counseling from Boston University.
Dr. Avery was an advocate for higher learning and a champion for change. He and his wife, an educator for Asheville City Schools, founded a center of learning for preschoolers at Hill Street Church, which presently operates as Hill Street Day Care Center. He was instrumental in the integration of the Asheville City School System and the desegregation of Winn-Dixie and F.W. Woolworth in downtown Asheville.
He served on the Boards of UNC Asheville, United Way of Asheville, the YMCA, Asheville’s Civil Service Board, and was the first Chaplain of the Asheville Police Department. He was the first African American President of Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance Association of Asheville and Buncombe County, and president of the Asheville Inter-church Housing Association, which built 100 units of affordable housing (Mountainside Housing Development) in Asheville.
Reverend Dr. L. C. Ray remembered Dr. Avery as an articulate man, and a special leader. “His diplomacy and fairness was an example of what a minister should strive to be. He was also my mentor, and I looked to him for guidance.”
Dr. Avery is survived by four children, Nilous II, Kryste, CiCi, and Nian, and 10 grandchildren. He will be honored in a Service of Remembrance Saturday, March 15, at Hill Street Baptist Church; visitation begins at 11 a.m. and Eulogy services at 1 p.m.
