Dr. Mary Ann Quaranta

Dr. Mary Ann Quaranta, dean emerita of the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service and a nationally recognized social work educator, died Dec. 16 in White Plains. She was 83.

She was dean of the School of Social Service from 1975 to 2000, when she was appointed provost of Marymount College of Fordham University.

She served at Marymount until 2004, then was appointed special assistant to the president for community and diocesan relations.

In the late 1980s, she was president of Catholic Charities USA. In that role, she addressed Pope John Paul II at the organization’s annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, during a papal visit to the United States in September 1987.

She also served as chairman of the Commission on Accreditation for the Council on Social Work Education, which honored her in 1998 with its Lifetime Achievement Award. From 1981 to 1983, she was president of the National Association of Social Workers.

Under Dr. Quaranta’s leadership, Fordham’s School of Social Service achieved national prominence, achieving consistently high rankings and bringing in record levels of grant and research funding. She also established the school’s first doctoral program in social work. “Mary Ann Quaranta was in many ways the life and soul of the Graduate School of Social Services,” said Father Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. “Her scholarship and vision helped shape the school’s direction, and her tireless effort on its behalf, and on behalf of several generations of students, made the school what it is today.”

Among her achievements as dean was the school’s receipt of the National Institute of Mental Health research grant on Hispanic mental health.

Other programs she initiated included CHILDREN F.I.R.S.T., the Children and Families Institute for Research, Support and Training, and the Interdisciplinary Center for Family and Child Advocacy in collaboration with Fordham Law School. Dr. Quaranta also was instrumental in developing the Ravazzin Center for Social Work Research on Aging and the Institute for Managed Care and Social Work, both at Fordham.

Born in Manhattan, Dr. Quaranta earned a bachelor’s degree at the College of Mount St. Vincent, a master’s in social work at Fordham, and a doctorate at Columbia University.

A resident of Larchmont, she had previously lived in Blauvelt for many years and was a member of St. Catharine’s parish there. Her husband, John Quaranta, died when their second child was 6 weeks old.

She is survived by her two children, Kevin Quaranta and Mary Beth Morrissey, and a sister, Eleanor O’Connor.

A Funeral Mass was offered Dec. 19 at Fordham University Church on the Rose Hill campus in the Bronx. Burial was in Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne.