Jefrick R. Dean, Sr. - 2012 Sloan Public Service Award Winner

Title

Jefrick R. Dean, Sr. - 2012 Sloan Public Service Award Winner

Description

Bus Operator, New York City Transit Authority

In his 22 years as a bus operator, Jefrick Dean has driven every bus route out of the East New York Depot in Brooklyn. On his current route, Dean drives from the depot to downtown Brooklyn and back to the depot eight times a day. He works from 6:30 am to 10:30 am, has a two-hour break, and then works again from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm. Dean welcomes each passenger who gets on by saying, "Take your time. Welcome aboard," and he has gone so far as to learn to say this in Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, Haitian Creole and Swahili. He also strives every day to make sure that everyone exits his bus in a better mood than when they entered, and most do.  

Bus riders occasionally write or call the NYC Transit Authority to praise a bus operator they view as exemplary. Given the City's bus fleet of 6,000 vehicles that transport an average of 2.7 million riders each week, these "unsolicited commendations" are surprisingly rare. Very few bus operators have accumulated more than a dozen in their careers. Dean has received 132, consistently praised by riders as being, in their words, "extremely special… most extraordinary… compassionate… exemplifies untiring patience … a most shining personality." Dean is the very definition of a civil servant.

Dean became an ordained minister six years ago and has been one of 76 volunteer chaplains serving under Rabbi Harry Berkowitz, the chaplain for the NYC Transit Authority. Rabbi Berkowitz notes, "All of my volunteers are wonderful, but Dean is truly one of the outstanding ones." In 2008, after bus driver Edwin Thomas was murdered by an angry passenger, Dean was "the rock that everybody relied on to get through the grieving."

Creator

NY Daily News

Date

2013

Source

https://www.nydailynews.com/resizer/DQ68roXS_osM_JzZfQD1FvCQGKg=/800x692/top/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tronc.s3.amazonaws.com/public/YIDNS22DUGR6EKTAYFUJNHANPE.jpg

Relation

Image of Jefrick R Dean Sr. receiving an additional award - NY Daily News

Link: Source: Transport Workers Union

Rights

Source: Six City Employees to Receive Sloan Public Service Award. (n.d.).NYTimes.com. Retrieved October 12, 2012

Publisher

NY Daily News

Contributor

NY Daily News

Format

Medium: Photograph.

Language

English

Type

Figures

Identifier

Jefrick R. Dean, Bus, Busing, Brooklyn, NYC, Transit, Minister, Religion, Sloan Public Service

Coverage

New York

Files

jefrickrdean.jpg

Reference

NY Daily News, Jefrick R. Dean, Sr. - 2012 Sloan Public Service Award Winner, NY Daily News, 2013

Cite As

NY Daily News, “Jefrick R. Dean, Sr. - 2012 Sloan Public Service Award Winner,” Virtual Museum of Public Service, accessed March 28, 2024, https://vmps.omeka.net/items/show/294.