Social Work

Tessie Bregman Okin, 89, an emeritus professor of social administration at Temple University, died of Alzheimer's disease last Sunday at the Quadrangle, the retirement community in Haverford where she lived. Born in Philadelphia, she was the salutatorian for the Class of 1936 at South Philadelphia High School, which inducted her into its Cultural Hall of Fame in 1977. Within five years of her high school graduation, her daughter Judy Wertheimer said, Mrs. Okin had earned both a bachelor's degree in education and a master's in social work at Temple.

Albert E. Wilkerson of Fairmount, a professor emeritus at Temple University, died of heart failure at the Visiting Nurses Association Hospice in Philadelphia on Monday, June 7, a day after his 82d birthday. Dr. Wilkerson retired in the mid-1990s after 25 years as a professor of social work at Temple. For 10 years he was associate dean of Temple's School of Social Work. He also taught graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania. He was the author of The Rights of Children: Emergent Concepts in Law and Society . A native of Durham, N.C., Dr. Wilkerson earned a bachelor's degree from Duke University and a bachelor's degree in divinity from the former Crozer Theological Seminary.

Orneice Dorsey Leslie, 68, of Southwest Philadelphia, retired director of admissions and assistant dean at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work, died of a brain tumor Dec. 31 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1999, Mrs. Leslie received a lifetime achievement award from the University of Pennsylvania Women of Color that called her "a clear thinker who works to create a more just community and who takes advantage of every opportunity to be a positive force for change, without regard to the risk of her own career.

EULA M. COUSINS was the star of the show last September when a crowd of well-wishers descended on her at a Roxborough retirement home. There was a letter from President Obama and his wife, Michelle. U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and his wife, news-anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, were among the celebs who dropped by. After all, making it to 110 is an amazing accomplishment, and particularly making it to 110 and looking as great as she did at that birthday celebration in her beige skirt and sweater, her face unwrinkled, a saucy carnation in her hair.

John F. Connors III, 85, of Merion, a sociology professor at La Salle University for 55 years, died Thursday, Oct. 4, at home of an apparent asthma attack. Mr. Connors began teaching sociology at La Salle in 1955 and was described by his colleagues as a good professor who demanded the most of his students. "There was always a group of students waiting outside of his office for help," said Finn Hornum, who chaired the department of sociology, social work, and criminal justice for a time while Mr. Connors taught at La Salle.

Tomorrow, the Commentary Page begins a two-week series exploring the increasing prominence of faith-based institutions in America. As government shrinks, people are looking for new ways to deliver social services, and faith-based groups - private schools, hospitals and nursing homes - are part of the mix. That raises questions of separation of church and state, the qualifications of volunteers to do social work, and oversight. The series begins with the Rev. Herb Lusk, pastor of Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia, and Roxanne Kibben, president of the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors.

Katherine D.K. Lower, 89, a former dean of the Bryn Mawr Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, died Saturday at her home in Newtown Square. Mrs. Lower was born in Wisconsin in 1902 and became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin. After four years at the Institute of International Finance in New York City and then in Paris, she joined the Roosevelt administration as a research analyst in 1934, helping to develop the first cost-of-living study and classifications for occupations for the U.S. Bureau of the Census.

Eugene C. Barbera, 74, patriarch of the Barbera car dealership family in Northeast Philadelphia, died of cancer Saturday at his home in Longport, N.J. From 1969 to 1979, his son Gary Barbera said, Mr. Barbera owned and operated Gene's Bar at Front and Norris Streets in Kensington. In the same era, Gary Barbera said, his father bought the former Palm Theater on Frankford Avenue near Norris, which he converted into a car wash. His daughter, Rosemary Barbera-Villegas, recalled: "My father, because he was a vet, went to Lincoln Tech to become a mechanic, and then bought a church that became Palm Automotive," a car-repair firm across the street from the car wash.

STEPHANIE Kacur was a teenager in Uniontown, Pa., when she was first exposed to Philadelphia — by watching "American Bandstand. " Seeing the happy teens dancing on Dick Clark's iconic TV show might not have presented a complete picture of the city, but it was enough to stir Stephanie's imagination. And she decided she wanted to live here one day. She got her wish after graduating from Penn State. Her parents gave her $100, and she arrived in the city in 1971. She got a job with the Children's Aid Society, launching a career in social work that extended almost 40 years.

Professor Timothy Johnson once wanted to be a world-class chef. As a North Philadelphia teenager, he learned cooking at a vo-tech high school and, in 1962, went to the Bellevue Stratford hotel to discuss career opportunities with a chef who spoke with an accent and was named Maurice. "Mr. Johnson, what about your sauces?" Johnson recalled being asked. "What kind of sauces do you make?" The horrified Johnson, knowing nothing of "sauces," immediately realized that "the system" had failed him. He ended up making sandwiches for a vending company for $1 an hour.