Warren Councilman Dean to join museum board

Photo

Bob Dean

Staff report

WARREN

Bob Dean, a Warren councilman, has been appointed to the board of directors of the National Museum of African- American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

The museum, which will be the 19th Smithsonian Institution museum when it is constructed starting in 2012, will be built on a 5-acre site on the National Mall. It will be adjacent to the Washington Monument and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.

President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the museum in 2003.

The museum already produces publications, hosts public programs and assembles collections. It is presenting exhibitions at other museums across the country and at its own gallery at the National Museum of American History in Washington.

Dean, who has given black-history presentations locally and across the country over the years, said he learned recently that he had been selected for a position on the 12-member board. Warren state Rep. Tom Letson, D-64th, notified Dean of the appointment, which was made by Gov. John Kasich.

“Personally, for a kid who was raised in the flats of Warren part of my life, it’s a long way to Washington, D.C., and this project,” Dean said.

Dean noted that his great-great-grandmother was a slave in Winona, Miss., and when Dean was a student at West Junior High School in Warren, his great-grandmother gave him an iron that his great-great-grandmother had used.

Dean showed the iron to students at his school and still takes the iron with him when he talks about black history.

Dean said he feels honored to serve on the board, which will meet in Washington periodically, because the museum “will be part of history for a century or more.” Dean said he will be sworn in to his position in June.

Dean was an affirmative- action specialist in the Air Force and later diversity manager and security manager for the Cleveland/Cuyahoga County Port Authority until he retired in 2007.