John Henry Byas, Sr. (1934-2020) was a community activist, tenants rights advocate, and a long-serving member of Community Board 7 in Flushing. He advocated for over 30 years for the construction of a modern public restroom at the Rachel Carson Playground in his neighborhood, which finally opened in 2013.

Byas was born on November 18, 1934, in South Carolina where he grew up on a farm. At the age of 13, he obtained his driver’s license, and he worked driving a school bus while in high school. He served in the United States Navy from 1953 to 1957 and then moved to Harlem. In 1974, he settled in Flushing with his wife, Johnnie Mae. After working 41 years as elevator supervisor at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, he retired in 2000.

He became active in the Flushing community shortly after moving to an apartment on Colden Street where he raised three children and lived for the rest of his life. He founded and became president of the University Park Tenants Association and organized other tenant associations in nearby buildings. He took note of the need for a comfort station at the Rachel Carson Playground on Colden Street near his home, not only to serve families and their children who played there, but also to prevent people from seeking relief outside his building. So he began what became a 30-year quest to have a bathroom installed. He joined Community Board 7 in 1992, in part to advocate for its installation, and he ended by serving on the Board for 16 years. In 2008, then-Councilman John Liu allocated the funds for its design and construction, and the Rachel Carson Comfort Station opened to the public on April 5, 2013.

An enthusiastic community supporter, Byas served as the director of the Rachel Carson Community Program at I.S. 237, which includes basketball, computer classes, step dancing, a game room, and English as a Second Language classes for adults and kids. He served as a Pastor’s Aid at Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church and on the 109th Precinct Community Council, and he was also on the board of directors for New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital, then known as Booth Memorial Hospital.

Byas died on October 29, 2020, and was survived by his wife Johnnie Mae, and three children, Clyde, Dana, and John, Jr., as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The intersection of Colden Street and 45th Avenue in Flushing, near the apartment where he lived and the Rachel Carson Comfort Station he fought for, is named in his honor as John Henry Byas, Sr. Way.