Died: July 30, 2012
Dean A. Gaver died unexpectedly on June 30, 2012, in Roseland, New Jersey, where he had spent the last ten years of his life; he had lived his entire life in New Jersey.
Dean was born on April 1, 1944, in Paterson, New Jersey, the son of Charles C. and Claire H. Gaver. Preparing for college at Fair Law High School, Fair Lawn, New Jersey, he entered Yale in September of 1962 and majored in industrial administration. A member of Calhoun College, where he was on the swimming team, he also volunteered as a tutor at Dwight Hall and coordinated the Yale Management Association.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Dean clerked for Sidney Goldman, Presiding Judge, Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey, before embarking on a long and distinguished career as an attorney, specializing in zoning and other land use issues. He worked for nearly thirty years at Hannoch, Weisman, Stern & Besser in Newark, New Jersey, serving as chairman of the firm in the last years of his tenure there.
He then joined the real estate department at Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP, in Iselin, New Jersey, where he was selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2005-06, and honored as one of Woodbridge, New Jersey’s Best Lawyers: Land Use and Zoning Lawyer of the Year for 2012, for his work as counsel in several New Jersey landmark cases involving exclusionary zoning and related land use matters.
Dean was an active and longstanding member of the Yale Alumni Association of Bergen County.
Dean married Carolyn Headley on March 30, 1969. He is survived by his “beloved companion,” Linda Magnano, and his three children, Torey McNair, Megan Kinard, and Chad Coleman.