For immediate release: September 27, 2002.
For more information, contact Jeff Bendix at 216-368-6070 or jxb34@po.cwru.edu.

CLEVELAND—Herman D. Stein, holder of lifetime achievement awards from the National Association of Social Workers, the Council on Social Work Education and the International Association of Schools of Social Work, as well as the University Medal from CWRU, has a new laurel to wear: He is one of only two Americans featured in a new book of interviews with international social work notables.

The book Faithful Angels: Portraits of International Social Work Notables, (NASW Press, 2002) consists of extensive interviews with 15 retired social workers from around the globe whose activities and research have helped shape the profession. The late James O. Billups, former president of the Inter-University Consortium for International Social Development, conducted and edited the interviews.

Subjects for the interviews were chosen by a panel of six social workers with expertise in international social work. To be included in the book, an individual had to have made exceptional contributions to social welfare inside and outside their own country in the second half of the 20th century and be retired from the profession. Fifteen individuals are profiled in the book.

"I was honored to be included among such a distinguished group of social workers," said Stein, now an emeritus dean and faculty member of CWRU's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. "I've felt privileged to be a part of this profession through my entire career."

Another individual profiled in the book, Meher C. Nanavatty, was a 1950 graduate of what was then the School of Applied Social Sciences. Nanavatty, who died in August in India, was a prominent Indian social welfare expert and active in the International Council on Social Welfare.

Stein had no inkling that he was being considered for inclusion in the book until Billups called to ask if he could interview Stein.

"It was a bolt out of the blue," he said.

Stein joined CWRU in 1964 as dean of the School of Applied Social Sciences. He also served as provost of the University on two occasions. In addition, he holds the emeritus titles of University Professor and the John Reynolds Harkness Professor of Social Administration.

In his interview, Stein traces his life as the youngest son of lower middle class immigrants in the Bronx; his efforts to join the army during World War II despite a hip injury; and his education at the College of the City University of New York and Columbia University, where he was appointed to the faculty in 1945.

Two years later Stein joined the Paris headquarters of the American Joint Distribution Committee as director of its Welfare Department. In that position he provided planning and consulting on services for Holocaust survivors and other displaced persons. He also developed relief programs for the Jewish communities in Tunisia and Morocco.

Stein returned to the Columbia faculty in 1950 where he taught courses in the application of social and behavioral sciences in social work practice. He also instituted the first seminars taught anywhere in international social welfare and consulted for governmental, nonprofit and business organizations, as well as the U.N. Division of Social Development.

In 1962 Stein went to Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania) at the request of the United Nation's Children's Educational Fund's (UNICEF) to serve as an adviser to that country's planning commission. That began a 25-year association with UNICEF during which he held the title of senior adviser to two UNICEF executive directors and directed senior interregional staff seminars.

"It's been an exciting career," Stein said. "I've met many extraordinary people and witnessed tremendous courage under incredibly difficult circumstances. There's never been a dull moment."

–CWRU–

 

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