Volunteers of Legal Service mourns the passing on August 17 of our longtime executive director, William J. Dean.
Bill joined VOLS in 1987, just a few years after our founding by leaders of the New York City Bar Association. He then served for 25 years as executive director and launched many of the initiatives that have defined VOLS across our 35 year history.
He will be sorely missed by the VOLS community and many others. Today, we share this remembrance from the The New York Society Library and The New York Times.
Watch the tribute to late VOLS leaders Bill Dean and Mike Cooper, offered by John Kiernan and Suhana Han at the VOLS New York, Together 2021 Awards in June:
Click here to read about Bill Dean’s legacy through The New York Society Library.
From The New York Times:
DEAN–William J., who was born, raised, educated (college excepted), and worked and lived in New York City, died in his home on August 17, 2020. As a lawyer, he was deeply involved in the life of the city, serving as executive director of Volunteers of Legal Service. As a volunteer, he served as chairman of the Correctional Association of New York, chairman of The New York Society Library, the Wednesday night driver for the Coalition for the Homeless food van, an almoner for the Havens Relief Fund Society, a legal adviser to the Greenmarkets in New York City and was a proud member of The Century Association. For two decades, he conducted a forum series at the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs, “New York: Problem City in Search of Solutions.” Hundreds of his personal essays on a wide range of subjects have appeared in the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor and Indian Economy & Markets. He was the author of The Pedestrian Revolution: Streets Without Cars, My New York: A Life in the City, Into Distant Countries: Travels and Personal Journeys and Before Us on the Road: Passages from My Reading. In 2011 he was the recipient of the Brooke Russell Astor Award presented by The New York Public Library, an award honoring a person “who is relentless in his or her dedication to the City and who has contributed substantially to its enrichment.” When not lawyering, writing, or volunteering, Mr. Dean enjoyed traveling the world, especially to Venice, and teaching in Puerto Rico and in India, attending the Opera, appearing once as a supernumerary in Don Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera, playing basketball regularly at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House and was a beloved brother and uncle and a friend to many.