Editing Samuel Dash

{{Short description|American lawyer}}
{{Infobox person
|name        = Sam Dash
|image       = SamDash 2400dpi color.png
|birth_date  = {{birth date|1925|2|27}}
|birth_place = [[Camden, New Jersey]], U.S.
|death_date  = {{death date and age|2004|5|29|1925|2|27}}
|death_place = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
|occupation  = lawyer
|known_for   = Chief counsel for the [[Senate Watergate Committee]]
|education   = [[Temple University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br>[[Harvard University]] ([[Juris Doctor|JD]])
|party       = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
|spouse      = Sara Dash (1947–2004)
|children    = 2
|signature   = Samuel Dash signature.png
}}
'''Samuel Joseph Dash''' (February 27, 1925 &ndash; May 29, 2004) was an American lawyer. He was chief counsel for the [[Senate Watergate Committee]] during the [[Watergate scandal]]. Dash became famous for his televised interrogations during the hearings held by the [[United States Congress]] on the Watergate incident.

== Early life and education ==
Dash was born in [[Camden, New Jersey]], to Joseph and Ida Dash (originally Dashevsky), [[Jewish]] immigrants from the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKdashS.htm|work=Spartacus Educational|title=Samuel Dash|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130903222601/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKdashS.htm|archivedate=2013-09-03}}</ref> His family later moved to Philadelphia.

He graduated from [[Central High School (Philadelphia)|Central High School]] in Philadelphia and went on to study at [[Temple University]].<ref name="NYTOBIT">Leary, Warren E., [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/30/us/samuel-dash-chief-counsel-for-senate-watergate-committee-dies-at-79.html "Samuel Dash, Chief Counsel for Senate Watergate Committee, Dies at 79"], ''The New York Times'', May 30, 2004</ref> While in high school he was the president of the Interscholastic League  of Student Associations.<ref name="CentralizerArticle1">{{cite news| last = | first = | title = Dash and ILSA Move To Aid in War Effort | newspaper = The Centralizer | location = Philadelphia, PA | pages = 3| language = English | publisher = Central High School | date = June 2, 1942 | volume = XXXIX | issue = 10 | url = | access-date = }}</ref> He interrupted his studies when at the age of 18, with the United States engaged in fighting [[World War II]], Dash enlisted in the [[United States Army Air Corps|Army Air Corps]] and served as a [[Bombardier (aircrew)|bombardier]] navigator, flying missions over Italy. After the war, he finished his undergraduate degree at Temple University in 1947. Dash then studied at [[Harvard Law School]] where he gained his degree in 1950.

== Career ==
In 1955, Dash became a [[district attorney]] in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]]. He later went into private practice.

Dash became a law professor at [[Georgetown University]], where he was working when he was asked to help [[United States Senator]] [[Sam Ervin]], head of the [[Senate Watergate Committee|Senate Committee]] charged to investigate the possible involvement of President [[Richard Nixon]] in the burglary of offices used by the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] at the [[Watergate Hotel]] in Washington, D.C., and the effort to obstruct investigation of the burglary. The university gave Dash a leave of absence to do this work, and he became the committee's chief counsel.<ref>{{cite web|work=Georgetown University|url=http://www.library.georgetown.edu/exhibition/georgetown-and-watergate|title=Georgetown and Watergate|date=November 2007}}</ref>

Two decades later, Dash was again in the news, after resigning his post as ethics adviser to [[Office of the Independent Counsel|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 thought 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. In 1976, he was elected to the [[Common Cause]] National Governing Board. Shortly before his death, he published ''The Intruders: Unreasonable Searches and Seizures from [[John of England|King John]] to [[John Ashcroft]]'', which discusses the risks to freedom in modern society, particularly in the wake of the [[PATRIOT Act]].

== Death ==
Dash died in [[Washington, D.C.]], of [[congestive heart failure]], aged 79, on the same day as [[Archibald Cox]], the special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal.

== Media appearances ==

*{{C-SPAN|13416}}
 
* In the [[WETA-TV]] 2-part special ''Summer of Judgment: The Watergate Hearings'' in 1983, marking 10 years after the hearings.<ref>{{cite web|title=Summer of Judgment: The Watergate Hearings, Part 1|date=1983|url=https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-mc8rb6ww1z|publisher=WETA|language=en-US|access-date=16 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Summer of Judgment: The Watergate Hearings, Part 2|date=1983|url=https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-gm81j9840b|publisher=WETA|language=en-US|access-date=16 August 2021}}</ref>

* In Episode 4 of the TV adaptation of ''[[Slow Burn (podcast)|Slow Burn]]'' Season 1 on the Watergate hearings (via archival footage).

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930073827/http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aceTxMotBhUM&refer=us Bloomberg News story on Dash and Archibald Cox]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dash, Samuel}}
[[Category:1925 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:Jewish American military personnel]]
[[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:People from Camden, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni]]
[[Category:Harvard Law School alumni]]
[[Category:United States Senate lawyers]]
[[Category:Georgetown University Law Center faculty]]
[[Category:Burials at Parklawn Memorial Park]]
[[Category:Watergate scandal investigators]]
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:United States Army Air Forces officers]]