Robert W. Dean, 69, a chemist who worked for 23 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a food technologist, died Friday at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park. A native of Long Island, New York, Mr. Dean had lived in the Chicago neighborhood of Beverly since the early 1970s, said his son John. Mr. Dean graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and received a doctorate in food technology from Rutgers University in 1959. He spent years in private industry as a chemist and food technologist, working on ways to improve food with chemicals, his son said. In 1972, he joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he stayed until his retirement in 1995. During his retirement, he published several trade journal articles on food technology, John Dean said. Other survivors include his wife, Mary Louise; two other sons, Thomas and Alexander; two daughters, Mary and Ellen Stutz; a sister, Margaret Vogel; and six grandchildren. A funeral mass will be said at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Christ the King Catholic Church, 9235 S. Hamilton Ave.
