The news that Joan Dunlop died did not come as a great surprise, but it is still a shock. It was not surprising because I knew for some time that the cancer she battled many years ago had recurred and had spread. Joan tried to maintain her activities. She and I were scheduled to have lunch earlier this week, but she had to cancel.
It is a shock because Joan was my collaborator and my friend for forty years. We got to know each other during the struggle to legalize abortion in the United States and, after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, Joan helped me to establish a Reproductive Freedom Project at the American Civil Liberties Union to defend the decision. She persuaded John D. Rockefeller III to become the principal financial supporter of that Project.
When I moved on to Human Rights Watch, I enlisted Joan to help me launch a Women’s Rights Project for that organization. In turn, Joan enlisted me to serve on the Board of the International Women’s Health Coalition of which she had become President. Together with her deputy Adrienne Germain, who eventually succeeded her at IWHC, Joan played a crucial role in a global paradigm shift with respect to birth control. Joan and Adrienne took the lead in arguing that empowering women and advancing their rights are the most effective way to control reproduction. With rights, women themselves would limit the frequency with which they gave birth.
The third phase in my career was my move to the Open Society Foundations in 1993. Once again, I tried to make sure that I would have Joan at my side. I introduced her to George Soros at a lunch at my apartment. They too became friends. When we established a U.S. Programs division, Joan joined the Board. She also became Chair of the Board of our International Women’s Program.
The words that come to mind when I think of Joan are courage, dignity, principle, forthrightness, humor, and wisdom. An opportunity to see Joan and to spend time with her always brought pleasure. It is a privilege to have known her and to count her as my friend.
4 Comments
I am saddened to learn of Joan's death and struggle. She was my first mentor, employing me in 1974 to serve as her assistant in her work with John Rockefeller. Joan enlightened my mind and soul and shaped my focus and courage in a deep and significant way that has only increased with time. She touched millions who knew and did not know her. I was blessed to be one of the former.
Thank you for those perfect and warmhearted words about Joan Dunlop who I first met in 1964. She was at the Ford Foundation and I was at the VERA Foundation that she helped transform into the Vera Institute.
Even before her full accomplishments or contributions were fulfilled or recognized, the qualities you describe were true even then.
Thank you so much, Aryeh, for this fitting tribute. I was privileged to have worked with Joan going back to the 1970's when I was at Planned Parenthood and later at IWHC. She engineered a coup at the 1994 Cairo Population Conference when when she and Adrienne upended the old demographic frame and mobilized activists and governments to put women's rights and health at the center of population policy. She was a magnificent strategist, a wonderfully persuasive and persistent campaigner for justice. And that sense of humor......I really miss her.
had the pleasure of working with Joan while she was at IWHC on some benefit planning matters for the employees. One word comes to mind as I picture her, elegance!
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