Edwin Gary Joselyn was a human rights advocate and school testing expert who was on the Robbinsdale District 281 school board when it made its controversial decision to close Robbinsdale High School in 1982.

Joselyn, known to those close to him as Gary, was an associate professor at the University of Minnesota and school testing consultant for the Minnesota Statewide Testing Program. He also helped found a suburban human rights agency, served 16 years on the Crystal City Council and climbed in the Canadian Rockies.

"To me, he was a model of citizen participation," said Dallis Perry, who worked with him at the university's counseling services office.

Joselyn, 81, died Aug. 29 of pancreatic cancer at home with his family, said his daughter.

After a dozen years on District 281's board, Joselyn was named an outstanding board member in 1982 by the Minnesota School Boards Association. He later became chairman of the association and also was first president of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts.

Joselyn was a quiet, unpretentious "straightforward kind of guy. His word really was his bond," said Fred Webber, who was on the school board with him. He said after Joselyn studied an issue, like closing schools in Robbinsdale, he made a reasoned decision and stuck with it amid hundreds of opposing public comments and letters. "Gary had the courage of his convictions," said Webber, 72.

Joselyn helped form the North Suburban Human Relations Council in the 1950s to counter racism in the area, said co-founder Ann Daly Goodwin. He also was one of the first men to join WATCH, which started as a women's group that monitored court cases involving sexual or domestic assault in the early 1990s, said group founder Susan Lenfestey.

He served on the agency's board and helped set up research to improve court handling of such cases, Lenfestey said. "He was very bright. He never claimed the limelight for himself," she said. "He was a true friend to women, a quiet yet passionate advocate for justice."

He also was a beekeeper and brought the staff jars of honey at Christmas, she said.

His daughter, Bernadine Joselyn, served with her dad on the Minneapolis Unitarian Society's Camp UniStar committee. "He would speak very deliberately. For him it was always about doing the right thing, not the expedient thing. He believed in democracy and informed decision-making," she said. "He was a man of honor and service and commitment to the less fortunate."

Besides his daughter, Joselyn is survived by his wife, Yleen, sons Mark of North Bend, Wash., and Eric of Philadelphia; brother George of Scandia, Minn., and six grandchildren.