Donald B. Cheetham 3rd retires June 30 after 43+ years in legal aid
(June 30, 2023)
At the LASP Staff Retreat on June 30, 2023, Donald B. Cheetham 3rd was honored for 43+ years in legal aid with a Lifetime Achievement Award: Shawn Boehringer (at left), Executive Director; Donald B. Cheetham 3rd, Staff Attorney; and Carolyn Johnson, Chief Counsel.
POTTSTOWN - Congratulations to Donald B. Cheetham 3rd on his retirement June 30, 2023, after 43+ years in legal aid! Don started at Delaware County Legal Assistance Association in 1978 and at Montgomery County Legal Aid Service in 1981, which later became LASP. He has been based in Pottstown since 1981. (MCLAS, DCLAA, Bucks County Legal Aid Society, and Legal Aid of Chester County merged in 2001 to form Legal Aid of Southeastern PA.)
At LASP's Staff Retreat on June 28 at the Inn at Swarthmore, Executive Director Shawn Boehringer awarded Don with a Lifetime Achievement Award, noting, "It's fitting that today's festivities take place on the campus of Swarthmore College, as Don attended this venerable institution graduating with high honors over 50 years ago in the class of 1973."
Don majored in political science and was a member of the Swarthmore College folk dance group. He also served as a reference assistant in the Swarthmore College Library. After graduation, Don headed to Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska to work as a VISTA volunteer on the school dropout rate. His next position was as a youth program coordinator and day camp director for the Southwest Washington YMCA in Longview, Washington.
Don returned to Pennsylvania and enrolled into Villanova University Law School. He did clinical placements with Delaware County Legal Assistance Association in both his second and third years and spent the summer of 1977 at Delaware County Legal Assistance.
After gaining admission to the Pennsylvania bar, Don started as a staff attorney with Delaware County Legal Assistance and developed an expertise in housing law. Budget cuts in 1980 led to dramatic cuts in federal funding of legal services programs. With little to no other funding from the state, local governments or private sources for legal aid programs, and with low seniority, Don was laid off.
Just three months later, he was hired by former MCLAS Executive Director and former LASP co-Executive Director Harvey Strauss in January 1981 to work for Montgomery County Legal Aid Service in Pottstown, which has been his professional home ever since.
"That is the quintessential Legal Aid lifer," Shawn noted. "Don has practiced in virtually all of legal aid's priority areas from representing parents and dependency cases to preventing evictions of tenants to representing debtors in bankruptcy. ... On behalf of the LASP family, we wish you the very best in your retirement and many healthy happy and productive years in the future. Thank you."