Esther Glasser, a charter member of NASW and a member of NASW's Practice Advancement Council on Social Work Services in Schools from 1983 to 1988, died on Feb. 2, 2008. She was 91.

An NASW Social Work Pioneer®, Glasser worked in a range of social work practice areas, including family services, child protection, adolescent counseling and school social work programs. She also held board positions with mental health organizations, organized a national conference on school social work and served on citizens' advisory councils.

Glasser was a founder of the Mental Hygiene Society of Northern Virginia in 1947. She also worked in the Detroit school system, with the Children's Protective Society in Washington and the Jewish Social Service Agency in New York.

She earned her MSW in 1939 from the New York School of Social Work and did postgraduate work at Brandeis University, Wayne State University and American University.

Glasser's husband of 55 years, Melvin Glasser, was also an NASW Social Work Pioneer®. He served as an aide to President Harry S. Truman and was the executive director of what became the March of Dimes Foundation. He was also director of the Mid-Century White House Conference on Children and Youth in the 1950s and director of the Health Security Action Council. Melvin Glasser died in 1995.

"Esther Glasser and her husband Mel were a wonderful team. They supported each other in their work — they made each other better," said Robert Carter Arnold, NASW Foundation director. "Their social work values live on today through the organizations they served and through their family members."