Background
He was born in Camden, New Jersey, to Joseph and Ida Dash (originally Dashevsky), Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union.
He was born in Camden, New Jersey, to Joseph and Ida Dash (originally Dashevsky), Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union.
Bachelor of Science, Temple University, 1947. Juris Doctor cum laude, Harvard, 1950. Doctor of Laws (honorary), Fairfield University, Connecticut, 1974.
Doctor of Laws (honorary), Georgetown University, 1983. PSD (honorary), Temple University, 1978.
His family later moved to Philadelphia. He interrupted his studies when at the age of 18, with the United States engaged in fighting World World War II, Dash enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served as a bombardier navigator, flying missions over Italy. Dash then studied at Harvard Law School where he gained his degree in 1950.
In 1955 he became a district attorney in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but he later went into private practice.
Dash became a law professor at Georgetown University, where he was working when he was requested to assist United States Senator Sam Ervin, head of the Senate Committee charged to investigate the possible involvement of President Richard Nixon in an attempted break in, and its subsequent cover up, of offices used by the Democratic Party at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, District of Columbia He was given a leave of absence by the university to take on this position. Two decades later, Dash was again in the news after resigning his post as ethics adviser to independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
After working for the investigation for four years, Dash resigned to protest Starr"s appearance before the United States House Committee on the Judiciary. Dash felt that Starr was acting as an "aggressive advocate" instead of an impartial investigator.
Dash returned to Georgetown, where, for nearly 40 years, he taught criminal procedure.
Shortly before his death, he published The Intruders: Unreasonable Searches and Seizures from King John to John Ashcroft, which discusses the risks to freedom in modern society, particularly in the wake of the PATRIOT Acting. Dash died in Washington, District of Columbia, of congestive heart failure, aged 79, on the same day as Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal. His remains were buried in Parklawn Memorial Park in Rockville, Maryland.
(1959 Rutgers University Press; First Edition Hardcover)
Member Human Relations Commission Philadelphia, 1957-1965. Executive Committee Community Relations Council, Philadelphia, 1960-1965. Board directors Hebrew U., Jerusalem, since 1975, Federation Jewish Agilysys, Philadelphia, 1960-1965, Albert Einstein Medical Center, 1962-1965, International League Human Rights, since 1972.
Chairman trustees Public.Defenders Service District of Columbia, 1967-1976. Served to Second lieutenant United States Army Air Force, 1943-1946, European Theatre of Operations. Member American Bar Association (standing commission on ethics and professional responsibility 1984-1989, chairman criminal justice section 1971, chairman special commission on criminal justice 1986-1989, member special commission on drug crisis), American Law Institute, Pennsylvania Bar Endowment (director nationwide investigation wiretapping 1956-1959), National Association Criminal Lawyers (president 1958), B'nai B'rith (Philadelphia regional chairman Anti-Defamation League 1960-1963, national commissioner 1960-1963).
Married Sara Goldhirsh, July 14, 1946. Children: Judy, Rachel.