Robert Curvin, a fiercely loyal advocate for Newark who never gave up on his troubled city and devoted a scholarly career to alleviating urban poverty, died on Tuesday at his home in the Vailsburg section of the city. He was 81.

The cause was multiple myeloma, his wife, Patricia, said.

Dr. Curvin was a co-founder of the Newark chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, successfully lobbied to integrate construction jobs in the early 1960s, earned a doctorate from Princeton, helped make Kenneth A. Gibson the first black mayor of a major Northeast city when he won election in Newark in 1970, and was a Ford Foundation official.

He also served on the editorial board of The New York Times for nearly six years and was a dean at the New School in Manhattan.

Dr. Curvin was realistic about the outlook for Newark, including the educational and employment challenges it faced, and he was frank about his disappointment in the city’s mayors.