Paul Quander was a former D.C. deputy mayor for public safety and justice. (AFRO File Photo)
Paul Alonzo Quander Jr. died on March 23 of cancer at the age of 61. He was one of the District’s most accomplished sons, serving as deputy mayor for public safety and justice from 2011-2015 under Mayor Vincent Gray (D), and appointed in 2002 by then President George W. Bush to be the District’s first presidentially appointed director of the city’s Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA).
Quander’s funeral service was held April 2 at the Howard University School of Law’s Dunbarton Chapel. More than 300 people attende, including family, friends, and some of the District’s leading political and legal figures.
“He was very good at what he did,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said during the tributes portion of the program. “He was one of the best public servants I have known. You can look around this room and see his legacy.”
The service was presided over by the Rev. Damien Johnson of the Seabrook Seventh Day Adventist Church in Lanham., Maryland and included a resolution from the Howard University Board of Trustees presented by D.C. Superior Court Senior Judge Herbert B. Dixon Jr., and a proclamation from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) presented by D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kevin Donahue.
Quander, was a member of one of America’s oldest and largest continuous Black families that started with a 17th-century ancestor from Ghana and includes Nellie Quander, a co-incorporator and first international president of the nation’s first Black collegiate sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. Quander, the son of District educators, Paul Alonzo Quander Sr., and Roberta Jones Quander, graduated from Calvin Coolidge High School in 1973, Virginia State University in 1977, and the Howard Law School in 1980.
Quander served in a number of legal and administrative positions in the District and federal governments including the chief of the correctional litigation section of the D.C. Corporation Counsel, deputy director of the corrections department, and assistant U.S. Attorney with stints as the medical director of the Metropolitan Police Department and executive director of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. He was retired at the time of his death.
Gray praised Quander as a colleague and a friend. “His ideas, ideals, and work ethic are something we can all admire,” the former mayor said. Noting his service as a deputy mayor during his administration, Gray said, “His commitment to ensuring the well-being of District residents was steadfast and his success on the job was immeasurable.”
Superior Court Senior Judge Nan Shakur remembered Quander, whom she deemed a close friend, as a “tough and unbending figure when he saw injustice.”
“I wanted him to follow me to the bench,” she said. “I remember when Eric Holder was the U.S. Attorney here in D.C. and called me for a reference regarding Paul. I told Holder that I was really doing him the favor by recommending him.
“Six months after hiring him as an assistant U.S. Attorney, Holder told me that I did do him a favor.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Channing D. Phillips said Quander prosecuted some of the toughest drug and narcotic cases while at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and described him as “charming, eloquent, and witty.”
“Paul was a good man,” Phillips said. “He helped make this city a better place.”
“I was known as Paul Quander’s little brother,” Michael A. Quander said. “People were always telling me how good and great my brother was.”
After the service, Quander was interred at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland.