I first met Madeleine in 1971 when, as part of the team designing a Dept of Labor (DOL) funded pretrial diversion project for Baltimore youth, we visited the Court Employment Project (CEP) in New York City. As a college student, I had interned at the CEP sibling, Project Crossroads in DC, at the DC Jail, a DOC-run halfway house, and then at the Prisoner’s Aid Association Druid Hill Residence in Baltimore. That journey resulted in the opportunity for me to work with Eddie Harrison and the Boston-based Learning Systems Inc. on the Baltimore Pretrial Diversion Project. In all of those settings, I was virtually the only female, and the majority of staff were men who had come to this work after having been incarcerated. This was an incredible learning experience, but not that helpful as I sought role models for myself as a young woman seeking a professional career.
As we were walking through CEP, I caught a glimpse of Madeleine standing in her office speaking with someone. She was tall and striking, with long hair, wearing knee high brown boots, corduroy pants, a big sweater, and big glasses. I don’t even remember speaking with her, but she made a big impression on me! She was gorgeous, commanding, and confident—and a bit intimidating, even without saying anything!
I don’t remember seeing her again until 1977 when I was preparing to leave the Baltimore Pretrial Intervention Project and looking for a new job. As fate would have it, Madeleine had just been appointed as the first executive director of the newly created Pretrial Services Resource Center (PSRC) in Washington, DC. She hired me as the Training Associate.
These were heady times with major national attention on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, on jail and bail reform, and on creating alternatives to prosecution and incarceration. At PSRC, I got to be responsible for planning our national and regional conferences, for practitioner training, and for developing pretrial curricula for judges, prosecutors, the defense bar, and elected officials. In the four years that I worked for Madeleine, I learned a great deal from her and the people she attracted to our work. And daily, I got to see a woman in charge.
I left the Resource Center to try my hand at a range of other enterprises. During that period, in 1982, Madeleine asked me to help her with aspects of setting up the National Institute for Dispute Resolution (NIDR) and to manage a discrete project called Pathways to Justice funded by the US Attorney General’s office. Shortly thereafter, I moved to New York—in significant measure, attracted by the glamour I associated with Madeleine and the NY pretrial colleagues I had met while at the Resource Center.
Madeleine left NIDR in 1993, started working internationally and then lived in Romania. She came back to NY while I was living in Costa Rica for three years. And so it was in 2011, after a hiatus of almost 20 years, that we were able to resume our friendship.
I feel very lucky to have had Madeleine in my life, and am honored that she asked me to be “her person” as it related to matters associated with aging. In 2018, she designated me a her executor, POA and Health Care Proxy, and the wonderful Edit Turcson Bain as the successor "everything." As anyone who has played these roles understands, Madeleine again had become a teacher---this time in some fundamental lessons about life.
Many people know her through work and a shared passion for human rights and justice. I want to close by naming some of the other things that I know were important to her
Madeleine had been an only child and was incredibly close to her parents. Her father Noel died in 1968, the same year that she married Burrill Crohn and came to New York to live. She and her mother Marie Louise saw each other six months a year until she died in 2003. Madeleine delighted in delighting her mother—with surprises, trips, notes left for no reason.
Madeleine never learned to drive so when we both lived in DC, I was the one she asked to take her to the airport to pick up her beloved Maman when she would come to the US for her regular, extended visits. Although my French was never good enough to converse much with Mme Loontjens, I loved her and being part of their family dinners.
I never met her childhood friend Anne-Marie Rousselot, daughter of the remarkable Jean Rousselot, but know that they remained friends for both of their lives. Anne-Marie died before Madeleine.
Madeleine was already divorced when she came to DC. I would not learn until the last decade that she had a deeply important bond with Burrill that started with their courtship and marriage, survived divorce, distance and many differences in temperament and beliefs. However, their friendship nourished and nurtured her to the end.
In fact, Madeleine gained a small and beloved extended family through Burrill. Although they live in California, Burrill’s cousin, Laurie Roth, her husband Jacob Bastacky, and their son, Josh Bastacky all adopted Madeleine as their own kin. And Laurie and Madeleine established an almost daily correspondence for years.
The lives of hundreds if not thousands of people have been touched by Madeleine Crohn and many people have benefited from the connections she generated---I know I did. She was personal and affectionate, but fiercely private. Most of us know only facets of this complex person.
We hope you will use this website to share some remembrances.
And given that Madeleine liked nothing more than toasting some shared success with a glass of champagne, we hope you will remember her fondly and lift a glass!
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