Dean Conklin; Fought for Abused Children

Dean S. Conklin Jr., champion of physically and emotionally abused children who twice served as president of the California Assn. of Services for Children, has died. He was 66.

Conklin died Sunday at his Covina home after suffering from heart disease, leukemia and cancerous tumors for more than a year.

Because of ill health, he retired in February, 1993, as executive director of McKinley Home for Boys in San Dimas, a position he had held for 12 years.

Before that Conklin served as executive director of Hillsides Home for Children in Pasadena for 19 years.

In 1970 and again in 1989, Conklin was president of the California Assn. of Services for Children, an organization of nonprofit child-care agencies that serve more than 30,000 youngsters, or about half the state’s foster care population.

“Finding suitable foster families is a problem,” Conklin told The Times in 1990. “These children are hurt, incapacitated, explosive and aggressive. They don’t like themselves, and they don’t trust the world.”

During his two decades of working with the state group, Conklin was widely credited with establishing modern operating procedures and a peer review system that made child-care centers more stable and accountable throughout the state.

He also helped to negotiate adequate contract service fees with the state, which made California’s child-care system one of the most progressive in the nation.

In 1976, he was appointed to the state Department of Health’s Advisory Committee on Community Care Facilities and served as its chairman.

He also was vice chairman of the California Child Welfare Strategic Planning Commission in 1990 and 1991, which recommended policy and program improvements.

Conklin spent his life in Southern California and had also served two terms as president of what is now the regional Assn. of Children’s Services Agencies.

When Conklin retired last year, he referred to his 35-year career as “an unusual period of time, a period of change driven by people in the field who consistently demonstrate their concern for children and their families. Where once things were primarily done through intuition, now they are done in a planful way with knowledge and with tested and proven methods.

“I consider myself very fortunate,” he said. “I’m delighted to have been there.”

Conklin is survived by his wife of 41 years, JoAnne (Jan); three sons, Dean, Jon and Jeff; a daughter, Kim; a brother, Jerry, and 10 grandchildren.

The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to the Cancer Care Center of Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona or to McKinley Home for Boys in San Dimas.