Edwin T. Bean, Jr. to Receive Red Jacket Award for Devotion to Civic Progress

Edwin T. Bean Jr., a partner in the Hodgson Russ LLP Intellectual Property & Technology Practice Group, has been selected as a recipient of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society’s annual Red Jacket Award for devotion to civic progress. Mr. Bean will receive the award at a dinner ceremony at the history museum on Thursday, October 16.

The award recognizes Mr. Bean for his longtime advocacy for children and families. His work in this area began as a volunteer with the Children’s Aid Society and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children of Erie County. In 1964, at the urging of the Children’s Aid Society’s executive director, he authored an act that became law, calling on physicians, surgeons, and other medical personnel to report suspected abuse or neglect of children under 16 years of age to an appropriate agency. Mr. Bean served as president of the Children’s Aid Society from 1968 to 1970 and helped oversee its merger with the Family Service Society of Buffalo to become Child & Family Services, of which he remains an active board member.

Additionally, Mr. Bean helped establish the Stanley G. Falk School, a day school for students who have special learning, social, and emotional needs, where he is a former board chair and a current trustee. From 1978 through 2002, he served as a member of the board of trustees of the world-renowned Gow School, the oldest college preparatory school in the United States for boys with dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities, and served as its chair of the board from 1991 to 1994. In 2002, Mr. Bean and his wife, Susan, were named National Philanthropy Day Distinguished Honorees by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

The Red Jacket Award is based upon a medal presented in 1792 by President George Washington to the renowned Seneca orator and leader Red Jacket.