THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 10, 1995 TAG: 9506100242
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: CHICAGO LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Thomas Andrew Dean, prominent Catholic business and civic leader, born January 19, 1899, in Saint Louis, Missouri, died May 30, 1995.
Mr. Dean was a devout and devoted Roman Catholic. Educated at Georgetown Preparatory School and Georgetown University, from which he graduated in 1916 and 1920 respectively, he continued close affiliation with Georgetown throughout most of the rest of his life. He was President of the Georgetown University Alumni Association, and was a member of its Board of Regents and Presidential Counselors.
The deceased was honored by Georgetown University with an honorary LLD in 1947, the University's John Carroll Award in 1952, and the University's 175th Anniversary Medal in 1964. In 1986, Georgetown presented Mr. Dean with its John Carroll Medal of Merit.
In Chicago, which was his home from the age of six months, he became a Life Member of the President's Club of Loyola University after serving as a member of its Board of Lay Trustees and in other capacities for many years. He was awarded an honorary LLD by Loyola in 1967, and its Damen Award in 1983.
The deceased was a member of the Board of Directors Saint Francis Hospital of Evanston, The University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation, and Catholic Charities of Chicago which he served for a half-century.
Special distinctions accorded to Mr. Dean by the Catholic Church include being made a member of the Sovereign Order of Knights of Malta and a member of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He was a member of Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity Catholic Church in Winnetka.
Mr. Dean was a member of the Chicago Crime Commission and was actively associated with the Chicago Boys and Girls Clubs which recognized his many years of devotion by presenting him its John F. Atkinson Award.
Mr. Dean's entire business career, from 1920 until retirement in 1974, was with The Dean Company, a hardwood veneer and lumber business which originated in Chicago. It had been purchased by Mr. Dean's father, Richmond Dean, then Vice President and General Manager of the Pullman Company, as an opportunity for his sons to develop a business independently for themselves.
Along with his older brother, John Richmond Dean, and later his two younger brothers, Charles Daly Dean and Philip Dale Dean, Mr. Dean developed the company into an internationally renowned specialty veneer and lumber business with a veneer mill in the Midwest, one in Central America, one on the West Coast, and one on the East Coast of the U.S.
Under his leadership as the company's chairman and chief executive from the time of his older brother's and his father's deaths in 1940 until his retirement in 1974, The Dean Company also became a major importer of mahogany and other foreign hardwood lumber and was one of the first to enter the particle board business through a German process at its North Carolina division, the Dixie Chipboard Company.
Recognized by his peers in industry, he was made President of The Veneer Association and traveled widely at home and abroad in the promotion of decorative American, Asian, and African hardwoods for furniture and architectural use.
He was a member of many boards of directors inside and outside of the wood industry, most notably including Skil Corporation of Chicago, on whose board he served from 1945 until 1971.
An active sports enthusiast, especially ice skating, Mr. Dean met and, in 1950, married Canadian-born Ruth Burns who shared his love for figure skating and had come to this country as a teaching professional at the Chicago Figure Skating Club of which he was a member. He was also a member of other golf and social clubs in the area, including Old Elm Golf Club.
Mr. Dean is survived by his wife, Ruth Burns Dean; 14 nieces and nephews; and upwards of one hundred great and great-great nieces and nephews, among them Mr. Richmond Dean FitzGerald of Virginia Beach.
KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY
by CNB