Daniel Lawrence Wade
March 6, 1944 ~ May 28, 2020
Resided in:
New Haven, CT
Daniel Lawrence Wade passed away at his home in New Haven, CT, on May 28, 2020. Dan was currently the Curator of the Foreign and International Law Collection at the Lillian Goldman Law Library of the Yale Law School. He formerly held the title of Associate Law Librarian. A long-time activist for peace and justice, Dan worked tirelessly for the advancement of racial justice and equality, climate justice, and immigrant rights, among other things. He helped found the Foreign Comparative and International Law special interest section of the American Association of Law Libraries, and was the first recipient of an award named after him. Over the years, Dan helped teach law courses in Legal Research and African Law. He was dedicated to helping younger members of the law library community across the U.S., and authored several articles, as well as co-authored a reference work on International legal materials.
Born on March 6, 1944, Dan received a B.A. degree in History from Manchester University in North Manchester, Indiana; an M.A. degree in Medieval Islamic History from Indiana University; an M.Div. from Bethany Theological Seminary; an M.A. in History of Religions from University of Chicago; a Juris Doctor from DePaul University; and an M.S. degree in Library and Informational Science from the University of Illinois. He worked as a Law Librarian at Vanderbilt Law School, University of Houston School of Law, and for over 30 years at the Yale Law Library of the Yale Law School. He truly loved Law Librarianship!
Dan was a member of the United Church of Christ, and the Unitarian Society of Greater New Haven, where he was involved in many social justice groups. Over the years, he was also involved in Interfaith Cooperative Ministries, Christian Community Action, and Congregations Organized for a New Connecticut among others.
He leaves behind his wife of 54 years, Carol, two daughters, Alyson and Malory, a son-in-law, Darren, a grandson, Luke, and a new grandson, Emerson. He also leaves a brother Tom, nephew Brady, and sister-in-law, Darcey. Dan was devoted to his sisters-in-law, brother-in-law, and many nieces and nephews on Carol’s side of the family as well. A great lover of travel, and in earlier years, backpacking and camping, the couple made many trips in the U.S., visiting every state, and traveling abroad. The family would like to thank everyone for their kind and loving words, and acts of comfort in these difficult days.
A virtual memorial service will take place in the future. Contributions in Dan’s memory may be made to the Equal Justice Initiative, www.eji.org , or to Earthjustice at www.earthjustice.org. Arrangements in care of Beecher & Bennett Funeral Home, 2300 Whitney Ave., Hamden.
Wishing you all peace during this sad time.
Wishing you, Carol, and your family peace and love, Dan was a very special man. He will be missed.
CAROL
My sincere condolences on your loss
Nancy Kuczynski
(formally from Hewitt nursing staff)
Carol
My condolences for your loss
Nancy Kuczynski
(Hewitt )
Dan was one of the kindest, most humble people, the most steadfastly and gently dedicated to justice and the well-being of all, I’ve ever known. I saw him at least as often at demonstrations or talks about the world’s and the community’s most troubling issues as I saw him at the Law School for international-law questions. At our human rights events, which Dan attended faithfully, he didn’t often ask questions, but when he did, he invariably showed, in his soft-spoken way, both his knowledge and his humanity, his deep caring. I often sent Dan email messages to suggest he order a new book about human rights for the library; most times, he emailed back immediately to tell me that he had already ordered it. The last exchange like that was on March 18. He responded right away to tell me he had just ordered the book I suggested. I’d been away and had asked in my message how he was doing. He responded only that he hoped I was doing well in a difficult time. I will miss Dan enormously. Yale Law School will miss Dan enormously.