Paul Dean, 90; Led Law School At Georgetown

Paul Regis Dean, 90, the dean who named Georgetown University's law school the Law Center and who oversaw legal education there from 1954 to 1969, died of respiratory failure Aug. 17 at The Virginian assisted-living center in Fairfax.

Referring to him as the "founding dean of the modern Georgetown University Law Center," current dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff called him "an inspiring and innovative leader who brought Georgetown Law to the forefront of legal education."

While serving as the chief academic officer of the school, Mr. Dean initiated its move from a single building at Sixth and E streets NW to its current location at Sixth Street and New Jersey Avenue NW.

In 1960, he established the E. Barrett Prettyman fellowships, a legal internship program for recent law graduates that combines instruction in the Law Center's graduate school with representation of indigent clients in the District of Columbia's local courts.

Mr. Dean also restructured the graduate program, improved the quality of the faculty and student body and expanded the variety of courses in criminal justice and poverty law.

Born in Leetonia, Ohio, Mr. Dean graduated from Youngstown State University in 1940 and served in the Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. He received all three law degrees from Georgetown: a 1946 bachelor's degree in law, a 1952 master's degree and a 1969 doctorate.

Mr. Dean taught classes on contracts, taxation, estate planning and trusts at his alma mater from 1947 to 1954, when he became dean. From 1971 through 1994, he was a appointed by the District Court for the District of Columbia as a neutral trustee for the United Mineworkers of America's welfare and retirement fund.

He served on presidential commissions under Harry S. Truman and Jimmy Carter, on panels regarding contract compliance and pension policy. He was legal adviser to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission from 1961 to 1963. He was also an original trustee of the Loyola Foundation.

In 1972, the D.C. Bar Association named him its Lawyer of the Year.

Alumni awards at Georgetown's law school are named for him, and in 2004, the school established an endowed chair in his name.

His wife, Delores M. Dean, died in 1987. Two of their children also died, Lawrence E. Dean in 1973 and Patricia A. Dean in 2004.

Survivors include seven children, Mary E. Dean of Milford, Del., John E. Dean of McLean, Paul R. Dean Jr. of Vienna, William J. Dean of Arlington, Delores A. Dean of Annandale, Teresa M. McCabe of Arlington and Brian D. Dean of Chantilly; 20 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

-- Patricia Sullivan