Dolores (Dede) Ann Donovan, former USF Law School professor, passed away on Saturday, May 3, 2025, surrounded by her family.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune Obituary:
Although born in Detroit, Dede spent much of her early years in Kansas City, Missouri, before moving in 1958 to La Jolla, California.
Dede received her BA and JD from Stanford University, where she was active in the antiwar movement. After law school, Dede worked her way around the world, eventually arriving in Saigon. She decided to stay and took a job with the Lawyers Military Defense Committee, representing service members–often in connection with antiwar activity. A military judge swore her into the California bar at Long Binh Stockade, better known as “LBJ” (Long Binh Jail) to its inmates. After a year in Vietnam, Dede moved to Washington, D.C., joined the ACLU, and wound up on the team defending Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers case. She returned to the Bay Area in 1973, where she worked as a criminal defense attorney for several years before joining the faculty at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
As an academic, Dede developed specialties in criminal, constitutional, and comparative law, with an emphasis on human rights. In addition to publishing in journals around the world, Dede also spent many years working internationally. This included years in Cambodia, where she helped draft the constitution, establish the post-Khmer Rouge legal system, and, most importantly, adopt her daughter, Symara Donovan. Dede later worked in Ethiopia to develop its legal system and spent years with USAID in India, tackling issues facing women and children. Dede also spent time working in countries ranging from Indonesia to Ireland, China, Haiti, and Kazakhstan. Few careers have impacted as many lives across the globe as Dede’s.
Dede returned to La Jolla in 2005, though she continued to work at USF, domestically and internationally, until her retirement from full-time teaching in 2013. The word “retirement” is, of course, relative. In retirement, Dede continued to publish academic articles, was active in the Quaker fellowship, and stayed politically engaged through Veterans for Peace and campaigning (often decamping to Arizona to volunteer for key elections). Dede was also a force in the community through volunteering, animal rescue work, and serving as a board member or trustee for a dizzying array of La Jolla groups.
Dede is survived by her children, John Donovan Maher and Symara Donovan, by her granddaughter, Fiona, by her friends and colleagues across the world, and by the indelible mark she left on all who knew her.
The USF community extends its prayers and heartfelt condolences to Dede’s family, friends, and colleagues.