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Obituary for William A. Delano Peace Corps General Counsel



Obituary for William A. Delano Peace Corps General Counsel

William A. Delano Peace Corps General Counsel

William A. Delano, 79, first general counsel of the Peace Corps, died of renal failure Dec. 15 at his home in New York.

Mr. Delano worked on the legislation that established the Peace Corps before Sargent Shriver, director of the newly founded agency, named him general counsel in October 1961.

Over the next three years, as the Peace Corps came into being, Mr. Delano advised Shriver on legal relationships with other government agencies, host nations and contractors.

In 1964, Mr. Delano became secretary general of the International Secretariat for Volunteer Service, a multinational organization that promoted domestic and international volunteer service.

In 1967, he became president of Gale Associates, a management consulting firm in Washington. He returned to New York in 1970 and later became executive secretary of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Before joining the Peace Corps, Mr. Delano was a Wall Street lawyer and Democratic Party activist. He served in the Army as a Chinese interpreter in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II.

Mr. Delano graduated from Yale University and its law school.

A distant cousin of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he was born in Kalamazoo, Mich.

In addition to his wife of 57 years, Georgia Delano of New York, survivors include four children, Daniel Delano of Lenado, Colo., and Peter Delano, Andrew Delano and Laura Delano, all of New York; and three grandchildren.