SOCIAL WORK SCHOOL WAS HER FIRM VISION.(Local)

Byline: Grace O'Connor Staff writer

Elizabeth Heinmiller, a pioneer in proving that there was a place for women in social welfare, knew firsthand why the Capital District needed a graduate school for social work 25 years ago.

The School of Social Welfare at the State University at Albany opened in 1965. Much of the credit for this is attributed to research Heinmiller conducted with a committee of her peers in 1962-63, according to Maureen Didier, associate professor at the school. Didier and the Rev. Clinton Dugger, a 1967 graduate, are co- chairmen of a yearlong silver anniversary celebration.

In 1962, Heinmiller, then chairwoman of the …