Cantor Irving Dean

With sadness and love Ronnie Dean, Debbie Dean Pezzner, and Sherrie Dean announce the passing of our father, Cantor Irving Dean, who passed away on January 21, 2021. He was 98+ years young.

He was a wonderful father-in-law to Rick Pezzner, grandfather to Lara and Lisa, great-grandfather to Caleb, Eden, Ishai and Shiloh, uncle, cousin and more to the Szlamkowicz, Salomonov and Dienstag families in the US and Israel.

Irving Dean was born on April 5, 1922 on the Lower East Side of New York into a Chassidic family that instilled in him a great love for music, chazzanut, zemiros & nigunim, all with a deep respect for the traditions and true meaning of the Jewish prayer and liturgy. While he always kept davening fresh and lively, he made sure to “get it right”.

For the last few years he was writing many new pieces for cantors to use in expanding their repertoire. He was “on a mission” to get as much done as possible and his works have been published and made available for free to hundreds and hundreds of cantors worldwide.

After Pearl Harbor he enlisted in the Army – not to be a chaplain for which he was very qualified, but he wanted to be a fighting soldier. He trained both in the US and England in preparation for the long campaigns designed to defeat Hitler. Before shipping out he married the love of his life and musical partner for over 50 years, our Mom Millie.

He was in the Normandy invasion, major battles throughout France and the Battle of the Bulge. He personified the true meaning of The Greatest Generation.

Upon returning from the war he became a Cantor and he worked with Mom on featured radio programs in NY.

His over 70 years of cantorial work in NY, San Antonio and Houston was filled with prayer, teaching, writing, concerts and plays and many acts of kindness he ran to do every day.

Our home was always filled with friends and especially on holidays like Passover where he went out of the way to include everyone that could not read Hebrew in reading parts of the Haggadah in English. His theme was always inclusive and never judgemental.

His true calling and life’s work was always centered on a unique type of Tikun Olam, improving the world, which he did one student at a time, one Bar & Bat Mitzvah at a time, one wedding at a time, one hospital visit at a time, and, yes, even one funeral at a time.

he was focused on making sure each simchah or life cycle stage or each funeral was meant to be a celebration of the event and the person.

So…while it is obviously sad to finally say good bye to an amazing man who led an amazing life that literally benefited thousands of people we wish those who loved him, learned from him and had their lives improved by him, turn this otherwise sad occasion into a celebration of his life and daily focus on helping others.

My G-d bless this great man who quietly, lovingly and caringly did his best, every day, to improve the lives of all of us who knew him.

A private graveside service was held