NASW Foundation National Programs

NASW Social Work Pioneers^®

Herman D. Stein (1917 - 2009)

obituary

As a very young man, Herman D. Stein performed in the “Borscht Belt” (Catskill Mountains) with Danny Kaye. They remained life-long friends. When directors pressured Mr. Stein to pursue a career in acting, he consulted with his then fiancé and future wife, Charmion Kerr. “I will not marry an actor,” she told him. And a great career in social work and education was born.

Mr. Stein, born in the Bronx in 1917, passed away October 2, 2009, at his home in Shaker Heights, Ohio, after a long illness. He was 92.

The native New Yorker was educated in a Yeshiva during most of his elementary school years, in a Hebrew High School while attending a Morris High School, and at the Jewish Theological Seminary while attending the College of the City of New York, where he earned a baccalaureate degree in 1939.

Immediately after marrying in 1946, Mr. Stein, left a promising career as full-time faculty member at the Columbia University’s School of Social Work to help Holocaust survivors in France. He spent tireless hours working as the deputy director of budget and research at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s Paris Headquarters, and through his contributions expanded the organization’s work beyond Europe into North Africa. His commitment to the organization, begun at the age of 30, continued throughout his life. Returning to the United States, Mr. Stein rejoined the faculty at Columbia, earned a doctorate in social work in 1958, and taught there for 14 years.

"Dr. Stein,” as he was known to his scores of devoted students, took on the responsibility as Dean of the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1964. The University soon tapped into his acute administrative skills to appoint him Provost and University Vice President. He went on to guide the University through the turbulent 1960s with a calm head and a steady hand, listening carefully to students and faculty. In 1994 the University bestowed upon him its highest honor, the University Medal, only the 12th person to receive it, in recognition of his expert judgment and exemplary leadership. He was again called upon to serve as the University’s Provost during 1986-88.

Among his various professional roles, Mr. Stein was a consultant to UNICEF from 1963 to 1983, serving as Senior Advisor to the Executive Director of the UNICEF to shape the organization and guide its development, and undertaking missions to more than two dozen nations He carefully preserved anecdotes from his encounters with children he met on these missions, and brought back dolls from across the world to his three daughters at home. His training and educational seminars prepared a generation of UNICEF senior executives.

A pioneer of social work profession and a highly regarded social work educator, Mr. Stein was the President of the Council of Social Work Education from 1966-69, and the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW) from 1968-76. He was a visiting faculty member at the Smith College School of Social Work and University of Hawaii, and was twice a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University. His authored, co-authored or co-edited several books and over a hundred scholarly articles. He also served on committees and boards of several other organizations including International Council of Social Welfare, National Association of Social Workers, National Academy of Sciences, National Institute of Mental Health and U.S. Welfare Administration.

Although a New Yorker at heart and in spite of his several national and international commitments, Mr. Stein’s devotion to Cleveland was unwavering. At Mayor Carl Stokes’s request, he served as the Chairman of the Mayor’s Commission on the Crisis in Welfare in Cleveland in 1968-69. He served as advisor to the Council on International Programs, and Jewish Community Federation. Mr. Stein retained a strong Jewish identity through out his life.

When asked what Mr. Stein did during his career, Diwakar Vadapalli, his assistant and friend, responded, “It’s hard to imagine what he did NOT do.”

Mr. Stein was the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, several international awards including the Rene Sand Award of the International Council of Social Welfare, the Dorothy Humel Hovorka Prize from Case Western Reserve University, and the Katherine Kendal Award of the IASSW. His pioneering work is featured in several publications. Case Western Reserve instituted an Annual Lecture in International Social Welfare in his honor.

Mr. Stein was also a loving father. Full of good humor and always an incredible entertainer, he would read the telephone book to his young daughters with different expressions and emotions for every name, address and phone number to entertain them.

Survivors include his brother Joseph Stein of New York, playwright of “Fiddler on the Roof” and other works for the musical stage; daughters Naomi Stein of Shaker Heights, Shoshana Bennett of California, and Karen (Mark) Gelender of California; and five grandchildren. His wife Charmion died in 2001.

With keen wit and humor and fierce intellect Mr. Stein shaped organizations, universities, governments, and individual careers. His love of life was infectious and left a lasting legacy that will be felt forever.

Services were private, and were handled by Berkowitz-Kumin in Cleveland Heights. A memorial service will be scheduled in the weeks to come on the Case Western Reserve University campus, after which the family will receive visitors.

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