Aaron C. Toodle’s Grave

If Charles Diggs Sr. was the spark that founded Detroit Memorial Park, Aaron C. Toodle was the steady hand that kept it alive. A Black pharmacist, Toodle co-founded the cemetery in 1925, served as its first president, and stayed on its board for some thirty-five years — long enough to train the next generation, the children and grandchildren of the original investors, to carry it forward. Largely because of him, the institution is still Black-owned and thriving a century later.

He rests, fittingly, in the ground he helped secure — alongside co-founder Charles Diggs Sr. at Detroit Memorial Park. On our list.