NASW Foundation National Programs

NASW Social Work Pioneers^®

Frederick Delliquadri (1916-1989)

Pardo Frederick Delliquadri (Fred), a pioneer all of his life, was Dean of four major schools of social work, Chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau, a State Director for Children and Youth in three different states, as well as the U.S. Representative to the Executive Board of UNICEF, and the U.S. Delegate to the Inter-American Children's Institute.

Delliquadri was born and grew up in Pueblo, Colorado. After graduating from high school in 1934, he won a 4-year scholarship to the University of Colorado where he received his B.A. degree in 1938 and was elected to several honor societies including Phi Beta Kappa. He received his Masters of Science in Social Work degree from the University of Nebraska in 1941. His first position in social welfare was as State Certification Officer for the Work Progress Administration in Wyoming (1938-1939). As a graduate assistant in the University of Nebraska (1940-41) he participated in a Brookings Institute study of the Public Welfare Programs in Nebraska and supervised field works students on field trips.

Following graduation, he became a Senior Children's Worker in the County Welfare Department in Washington State. During World War II, he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve. In 1946 he became supervisor of Children's Services in the Wyoming State Department of Public Welfare, and in 1948 the Superintendent of the Division of Child Welfare in the Illinois Department of Public Welfare. Beginning in 1950, Delliquadri served for ten years as the Director for Children and Youth in the Wisconsin Department of Public Welfare. During these years he was also a social welfare adviser to the United Nations and lecturer at the University of Wisconsin. From 1960 to 1967 he was Dean of the Columbia University School of Social Work. From 1967 to 1968 he was the Dean of the University of Hawaii's School of Social Work.

Delliquadri became Chief of the Children's Bureau at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. With a change of administration and pending reorganization, Delliquadri left this post, in 1969, to become the Dean of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, School of Social Welfare. In 1972, he moved south and became the first Dean of the University of Alabama School of Social Work.

During his eight years of service as a representative of UNICEF, he visited many countries and listened to the needs of children from tribal leaders in third world countries. He shared his expertise with South American social workers as Representative to the Inter-American Children's Institute in Uruguay and as a United Nations Social Welfare Advisor to El Salvador.

Among his many honors were the NASW Award for outstanding services to the social work profession in 1960, and an HEW Award for distinguished service as Chairman of the Federal Panel on Delinquency in 1967. In 1968, Delliquadri received a Foneme International Prize from the Institute for Studies in Research and Human Formation in Milan, Italy, and a Distinguished Alumni Award for Outstanding Service to Humanity from the University of Colorado in 1969. He was active in many organizations concerned with child welfare services and juvenile delinquency. In all of his many involvements with social work education and program development, he maintained an extraordinary sense of humor and a practical no-nonsense approach to problem solving.