Detroit political consultant local media personality Steve Hood died Thursday afternoon at 58.
Hood had battled pancreatic cancer for months and died at DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit.
He was a longtime city of Detroit insider and youth mentor who said he helped more than 150 people win elections, according to his website. He also hosted “Detroit Wants 2 Know” on WKBD TV 50 as well as an online broadcast called “Wake Up With Steve Hood.”
Hood’s death came after months of traveling with family after he learned of his terminal diagnosis, said his brother, the Rev. Nicholas Hood III. They went to Mount Rushmore, which Steve had never visited, as well as California to see family and Utah for a driving course from Ford Motor Co. Hood’s brother said he spent a lot of time talking with Steve in the last few months, affectionately calling it “walking to death with Steve.”
“He was part of the relatively small network of people who get other people elected … he was widely connected,” the Rev. Hood said, adding that his brother was always proud he was able to make his way independently as an entrepreneur.
Hood, a Cass Technical High School alumni who also attended Roeper City and Country School and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1985 from Emory University in Atlanta, according to an obituary written posted online by his brother.
He grew up in a political family, with his brother and his father, the Rev. Nicholas Hood Sr., serving on Detroit City Council. Steve’s own early interest was in medicine, but by the time he graduated from college that had changed, said friend and public relations professional Greg Bowens.
“I think that he had a greater calling as it relates to wanting to heal the community, you know, without a medical degree,” Bowens said. “Steve, he was real big on entrepreneurship and ownership and he had a liking for politics and for the media, as it were. So when he had started his data company, you know, mining the records for votes and helping candidates be able to zero in on likely voters … it took off.”
Hood created an election data system in the mid-1990s and started a data business, Hood Information Technologies, to advise candidates for office. Clients have included the likes of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and attorney Geoffrey Fieger when he ran for governor.
“It ebbed and flowed with the political seasons, but at the same time he was able to sustain himself for a long time and make a valuable contribution to leadership in Detroit and around the state,” said Bowens, who also wrote a tribute to Hood posted at Deadline Detroit.
Hood also served as vendor services director for Wayne County’s budget department from 2003 to 2009, according to his obituary. He started “Detroit Wants 2 Know” in 2010.
“In 2010 Steve Hood, fed up with the negative images of African Americans on the news, started the Detroit Wants 2 Know Television Program,” Hood’s obituary states.
Hood also wrote that his “most important legacy” was helping young Detroiters.
He taught Sunday school for high schoolers for two decades at the church where his brother serves as reverend, Plymouth United Church of Christ in Detroit.
As part of his mentorship, Hood took youth on tours of historically Black colleges and universities, and Ivy League schools. The students he taught at Sunday school have also benefited from the church’s scholarship fund that has grown to $970,000, according to Nicholas Hood. He said there’s a scholarship in honor of their mother, Elizabeth Hood, and he plans to broaden it to include his brother. He also hopes to move forward with a California college tour to Stanford, University of California Berkley and University of California Los Angeles that Steve had been planning, and to name it after him.
“That was really his vision, he and I were working on it, we could never get the financing right,” Nicholas said. “But with this year and the valuation of the endowment I think we can do it.”
In a statement Friday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called Hood a “titan in the city of Detroit.”
“His passing is such an incredible loss for so many of us who not only called him a mentor, but also a close friend,” Whitmer said in the statement. “Steve lived the spirit of Detroit through his deeds and actions. Everything that he did had a positive impact on those around him. We will carry on his legacy by fighting for the values and policies that he advocated for throughout his career. We miss you, Steve.”
Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, a former director of the city of Detroit’s technology department who also ran unsuccessfully for Detroit City Clerk, said in a statement that “whether we heard his voice on the radio or saw him in the community, there’s not a single person who wasn’t impacted by his words and wisdom.”
Hood is survived by his brother, the Rev. Nicholas Hood III.
Hood’s funeral is set for 11 a.m. Saturday under a tent in a parking lot at Plymouth United at 600 E. Warren Ave. A viewing is planned noon-7 p.m. Friday at the same location.
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