The son of a newspaper editor, an A.B., Sigma Xi, at Yale with graduate work in science, Mr. Dean conducted educational programs for the Air Force, the American Management Association and various corporations. Mr. Dean served in the O.S.S. and in the Air Force as a combat intelligence officer in Europe, 1942-1945, receiving the Bronze Star Medal for his participation in European heavy bomber operation.

Prior to joining the McCann-Erickson Advertising Agency as vice-president in charge of Marketing Services in December, 1950, Mr. Dean was Executive Vice President of the Telecoin Corporation and developed the Launderette Self-Service Store system. Mr. Dean was also formerly a vice president of the J. Walter Thompson Co from 1927 - 1942.

From 1960 on, Mr. Dean had been the head of his own planning and consulting firm, Ventures Development. He was Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Office of Telecommunications of the City of New York from 1970-1978. A member of the Communications Media Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union, he presented puiblic interest testimony on policies for broadcast, cable and other communications media on behalf of the National Businessman's Council, the City Club of N.Y., and Americans for Democratic Action (National).

Mr. Dean was a founding trustee of the Metropolitan Education Television Association of New York City and a past director of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Mr. Dean has also served as a volunteer consultant in cable television and media development to community groups in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, District of Columbia, Tucson and New York City.

*He will doubtless be remembered as longtime trustee, president, and chairman of the City Club of New York, but perhaps as much so as an advocate of using the emerging technology of cable television as a way for those who are poor and ignored to be seen -and heard.

*Long before most others, he saw the potential power of television pressing the city to require cable companies to provide public access channels. He met with some success, though perhaps not exactly what he had envisioned. Few things turn out that way.

*His devotion to free speech was instilled in him by his father, a newspaper editor. A member of the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans for Democratic Action, he took up the cause, helping to keep New York what it has always been: the center of the world of ideas and the free exchange of Information.

*"He was on the forefront of telling us about the privacy and First Amendment issues and teaching us about communications and communications technologies," said Amy Isacs, national president of Americans for Democratic Action.

*In 1970, when cable television franchises were first being proposed for New York City, Mr. Dean began pressing the city to require numerous public access channels and to prevent cable operators from having any financial interest in progams or channels they carry.

*"So long as cable system can control their content they will attempt to deny market access to all other producers and distributors of print and electronic communications," Mr. Dean wrote in a 1973 letter to The New York Times. Such issues persist today as Rupert Murdoch tries to get his new 24-hour news channel onto the cable system operated by Time Warner, his rival in the news and entertainment business and the owner of CNN.

*Today Time Warner owns many of the channels on its system and so does Cablevision, the other cable franchise holder in the city.

*In 1980 Mr. Dean criticized the city's process for awarding cable television franchises as a "blind man's bluff-purchasing agent act" in which the city was "settling for too little from the cable companies." He said that nothing in the city's franchise award plans "holds out any hope of cable reaching out to the poor, ghettoized and handicapped." Today, fewer than half the households in the city subscribe.

*During the debates over awarding cable franchises, Mr. Dean was once invited to a private meeting of city officials and representatives of the franchise seekers, but declined. "I will never go into a backroom discussion,' he told Sally Goodgold, another City Club trustee.

*Mr. Dean was the son of a Boston newspaper editor who constantly preached the First Amendment's virtues to his son. After graduating from Yale University in 1926, Mr. Dean joined Walter Thompson, the advertising agency, and later worked with other marketing companies.

*During World War II, as an Army Air Force officer, he analyzed photographs of bomb damage. He volunteered to fly on some bombing runs because he felt it would make his analysis more accurate, his friend Peter Stanford said.