Preston Washington

In 2004, Rev. Renee Washington was elected to succeed Washington as senior minister of Memorial Baptist Church.

In 2003, Washington died at the Medical Center in Manhattan of heart failure at the age of 54 years.

Washington also pushed the role of a church into managing three parks and a jobs skills training program. In 1997, he told Mother Jones magazine, ''We want to get beyond soup kitchens and care packages."

Washington encouraged his congregation to welcome tourists who arrived by busloads to hear gospel music. These tourists made contributions that helped renovate the church. Washington even organized the church service so that his preaching would take place after the tourists, many who did not speak English, had left. In 1996 he told NPR that "members joked that the church was a European church on Sunday morning and a clandestine black church at nights during the week."

In 1986 with Canon Frederick B. Williams, Washington co-founded the Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement (HCCI), a consortium of 90 congregations that developed housing and retail services. He served as the president and CEO of HCCI. HCCI helped start a revival in Harlem during the difficult years of the 1980s and early 1990s. HCCI spent $200 million in the Bradhurst section of Harlem, developing 1,300 housing units. Part of this was House of Hope which built houses for homeless single parents and their children. HCCI also established thirty retail stores in Harlem.

In 1976, Washington became a senior pastor at Memorial Baptist Church in Harlem, New York, serving there until he died in 2003. The congregation grew to 1,500 people under his leadership. The church became a popular stop for politicians.

Washington was born in Manhattan, New York. He grew up on 99th Street in Spanish Harlem and attended public schools. He then attended Williams College, graduating summa cum laude in 1970. While he was at Williams, he was a member of the social and literary fraternity St. Anthony Hall.

Preston Robert Washington (August 26, 1948 – June 25, 2003) was a prominent minister of Memorial Baptist Church in Harlem, New York. He was a co-founder of the Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement and held leadership positions from 1986 to 2001, bringing millions of dollars in development projects for housing and retail to the neighborhood.