NETWORKING® MAGAZINE'S DAVID AWARD HONOREE, JANUARY 12, 2006

ALFRED DEVENDORF
Attorney at Law, Pacifico & Marmann, LLP

by Maureen Traxler

Alfred Devendorf can be described as veteran, lobbyist, lawyer, advocate, fundraiser and community servant. His commitment to people in need, his wisdom and wise counsel, and his desire to help children and promote strong, loving families is generously mixed with his good humor, quick wit and genuine enthusiasm for life.

A Great Neck native, Devendorf attended The Choate Rosemary Hall School in Connecticut, where he says, at age 13 he was challenged to accept his good fortune and give back to others. Taking this to heart, he used his spare time to fundraise for the school's support of the local community's needs. He earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and served two years in the U.S. Army in Germany as part of NATO in the late 1950s, attaining the rank to First Lieutenant (artillery).

Devendorf was working full-time as a Washington D.C. lobbyist for the Long Island Lighting Company while he attended Brooklyn Law School. Married with two young children, he would arrive at LILCO's Mineola offices at 4:30 a.m. to study, catch an early flight to D.C., and return to attend night classes. After receiving his law degree, and feeling somewhat guilty about short-changing his family, he took several years off to help raise his children, George and Diana.

"It seems like a little thing now," remarks Devendorf, "but it was like putting money in a savings bank for the character, growth and development of our children." When his children entered school, he applied his law degree serving as a Nassau County Assistant District Attorney, gaining valuable trial experience.

It was while serving as LILCO's United Way representative that Devendorf was introduced to large scale fundraising. Working shoulder-to-shoulder with the executive director, he visited organizations and solicited funds. "I learned how fundraising for charities was done," he says. Afterward, he ran LILCO's internal campaign, and doubled the company's giving dollars within two years.

Devendorf served 25 years as trustee and past president of Children's House, now merged into Family and Children's Association. Children's House was in decline when he accepted the presidency. Yet, he and the remaining three board members, known as "The Four Musketeers," turned the agency around prior to the merger, from one serving two dozen children in one home with a staff of 10 and a $400,000 budget, to the merged agency now serving 30,000 people a year with a $25 million budget and 400 professionals.

"Children's House became the third child in my family," says Devendorf. "Whenever we were adding a new program or opening a new facility, my wife and I would bring our children to see what was happening and meet the clients." Devendorf chaired Family and Children's successful endowment campaign in 2000 that raised $6 million, doubling the previous endowment.

Devendorf served lunches for the North Shore Interfaith Nutrition Network (the INN) in the basement of the Baptist Church in Glen Cove. With his ability to communicate in Spanish (thanks to his Venezuelan mother), he became an advocate for the "guests," helping them assess problems and find solutions. While serving as director and president of the Glen Cove INN, he wrote the chapter's by-laws.

Through his lunch-team leader, Devendorf learned that a RotaCare health clinic had opened in Uniondale but the doctors couldn't understand the Spanish-speaking patients, so he began volunteering as a translator. He'd sit with people in the waiting room, get them to smile, laugh and leave in a better frame of mind than when they arrived.

"It was great fun," says Devendorf. "Many patients were receptive. I made a lot of friends, and the staff (he pauses), the salt of the earth." He calls the clinic "a modern American miracle. It's providing services, medications and even operations free-of-charge. Doctors, nurses, pharmacologists and administrative staff are volunteers."

Devendorf served on the board of the New York Council on Alcoholism, and was a Trustee, Parent Council President and his Class' Agent for The Choate Rosemary Hall School. He was honored with the Children's House Scholarship Trustee Award, Family and Children's Associations' Beacon of Hope Award, and the 2005 Founder's Award from Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD).

A passionate supporter of the recovering community, Devendorf says LICADD has become "as important to him as Children's House." He's a founding member of LICADD's Leadership Council and former president of the Board of Directors, and works diligently on the board bringing his understanding, wit and commitment to help generate funds to sustain and expand the program.

In addition to accomplishments as a prosecutor, Devendorf's professional career included service as Senior Deputy County Attorney and Nassau County liaison to the NY State Legislature; Executive Assistant to the Nassau County Commissioner of Health/Counsel to the Board of Health, and NYS Assistant Attorney General.

Devendorf serves as a Eucharistic Minister and hosts Bible study and prayer groups at his home. He says: "I always had a connection to religion, being exposed to it by my parents. But when I was on my own, I started working toward a closer relationship than just arm's length. I think my interests in not-for-profit work and helping people preceded my really becoming closer to my church." At a recent Bible session, the group struggled with the lesson "go out and preach the gospel." "None of us," he adds, "could imagine ourselves on a soapbox on the corner, but at least we thought we could try to set a good example." He shared the response with LICADD's executive director, a calligrapher, who penned for him the words of St. Francis of Assisi: "Go out and preach the gospel and sometimes use words."

Devendorf and his wife Bonnie live in Locust Valley and are proud of their children. Diana has given years of service to Pueblo Indians in New Mexico and disadvantaged NYC youth. George works for Mercy Corps International and recent on-site projects have taken him to The Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.