David B. Tilove, retired lawyer and celebrated longtime legal aid director, has died at 82

David B. Tilove, 82, formerly of Hulmeville, Bucks County, retired lawyer and celebrated longtime legal aid director at the Bucks County Legal Aid Society, Lehigh Valley Legal Services, and North Penn Legal Services, died Tuesday, Jan. 2, of age-associated decline at his home in Pittsburgh.

Dedicated to making legal aid and representation available to all people, Mr. Tilove spent his entire 41-year career as a staff attorney, executive director, and consultant for organizations that pioneered public assistance in civil legal proceedings. He overcame inconsistent funding, insufficient staff, and ever-increasing cases to champion legal reforms and shape state legislation so the public could better participate in legal matters that affected their daily lives.

He organized telephone hotlines and legal workshops on divorce, child custody, bankruptcy, and eviction law. He recruited hundreds of lawyers to donate their services when money was tight, and money was always tight.

And, though generally reserved, he wasn’t reluctant to “attack the bureaucracy” when appropriate. “You can’t be doing the right kind of job here without making people angry,” he told the Daily Intelligencer of Doylestown in 1973. “The whole idea is changing the status quo.”

An expert in technology and collaboration, he cochaired a statewide technology task force and helped develop a comprehensive computer network that connected offices around the state. Colleagues called him “a thinker” and said he was “truly ahead of his time in so many ways.”

Colleague John Marston told The Inquirer in 1992 that Mr. Tilove kept the Bucks County Legal Aid Society “together with bailing wire and string.” In an online video, colleagues said: “This devotion underscores David’s commitment to the mission of equal justice for all.”

He was staff attorney and then executive director at Bucks County Legal Aid Society from 1970 to 1993, executive director at Lehigh Valley Legal Services from 1995 to 2001, and interim executive director and then director of information and technology at North Penn Legal Services from 2001 until his retirement in 2011. He consulted for Pennsylvania Legal Services in 1994 and chaired the management council that oversaw the merger of Lehigh Valley and three other legal aid organizations into North Penn in 2001.

He was quoted often in The Inquirer and other publications about legal aid issues, and earned a 2008 excellence award from the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network. “He was brilliant but reticent by nature,” said his brother Jonathan. “He was devoted to helping people but never calling attention to himself. He quietly, capably touched a lot of lives.”

His son Gabe said: “He was a man of few words but had a deep emotional and intellectual life that defied easy categorization.”

David Backer Tilove was born April 27, 1941, in the Bronx. He grew up in Pittsburgh and Long Island, and played tennis in high school and was in the science, math, French and chess clubs.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in math at Antioch College in Ohio in 1963, joined the Navy after college, and became a lieutenant junior grade on the USS Enterprise in Vietnam in 1965. He went to law school at the University of Pennsylvania, now Penn Carey Law, after his discharge and graduated in 1970.

His parents were socially conscious, and he was arrested with 48 others at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1968 for protesting the recommissioning of the Battleship New Jersey for deployment in Vietnam. He married Ann Gundersheimer in 1969, and they had sons Adam and Jacob, and lived in Doylestown.

After a divorce, he married Carolyn Jacobson in 1983, and they had sons Gabe and Micah, and lived in Hulmeville. He and his wife moved to Pittsburgh in 2018 to be closer to family.

Mr. Tilove played guitar and was inspired by music, and fellow lawyers sang to him at his retirement party. He enjoyed quiet time in his garden and took up English country dancing with his wife at 70.

He shared his love of nature with family and friends often, and liked that his sons stayed close over the years. “We were a family that always flopped on top of each other,” said his son Jacob. “You could often find us in a pile.”

His brother said: “There was a kindness to him.” His wife said: “He had a heart that touched the other person’s heart. He was deeply kind and deeply tender.”

In addition to his wife, sons, former wife, and brother, Mr. Tilove is survived by six grandchildren, a sister Ellen, and other relatives.

A memorial gathering is to be held later.