GSS to Hold Memorial Lecture for Dean Emeritus

Bryan Samuels

James Dumpson, Ph.D

Tuesday marked one year since Fordham lost one of its most esteemed scholars, James R. Dumpson, Ph.D., a tireless advocate for the poor and a former dean of the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS).

Next week, GSS will host a memorial lecture to honor Dumpson, who died Nov. 5, 2012 at the age of 103.

James R. Dumpson Memorial Lecture
Tuesday, Nov. 12 | 4 p.m.
Corrigan Conference Center / 12th-Floor Lounge
Lincoln Center Campus | 113 West 60th Street, NYC 10023

The featured speaker will be Bryan Samuels, executive director of Chapin Hall Center for Children in Chicago and former commissioner of the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families. Samuels’s lecture will center on child welfare, a topic about which Dumpson was passionate.

The memorial lecture is part of an ongoing series associated with the James R. Dumpson Chair in Child Welfare Research, a position created in 1980 to honor Dumpson and utilize the University’s education and research resources to improve the quality of life for vulnerable children.

The chair, which is currently held by Brenda G. McGowan, D.S.W., evokes Dumpson’s commitment to children by focusing its teaching, research, and advocacy on New York City children most in danger of losing their rights or not enjoying an adequate quality of life.

A reception will follow the lecture. RSVP by emailing Priscilla Dyer, or call (212) 636-6623.

Dumpson began at Fordham in 1957 as a visiting associate professor in the Graduate Institute of Mission Studies. After leaving to serve as deputy commissioner in the Department of Welfare, he returned to Fordham in 1967 to take the helm at GSS, becoming the first African-American dean of a non-black school of social work.

To read more about Dumpson and see a timeline of his career highlights, click here.

Read Dumpson’s obituary in The New York Times here.

— Joanna Klimaski