Albert Kleiner | Federal prosecutor, 51

Albert Kleiner, 51, a Philadelphia native who became a prosecutor in Arizona, died Sunday, Nov. 4, of melanoma at a hospice in Tucson.

For the last nine years, Mr. Kleiner was an assistant attorney general in the Tucson office of the U.S. Justice Department, where he focused on white-collar crime.

"Because he was principled and a person of integrity, he was constantly looking for an occupation where he could make a difference," said his brother, Michael. "He was adept at whatever he tried."

As a teen growing up in East Oak Lane, he worked with the 50th Ward volunteer ambulance corps. He earned emergency medical technician status and taught emergency medicine.

Mr. Kleiner graduated from Central High School in 1979 with honors - one for service to the school, the other for academic achievement.

Mr. Kleiner graduated from Temple University's Tyler School of Art in 1984 with a degree in metal work.

Over the next 14 years, he lived in New York, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, and Melbourne Beach, Fla.

In San Francisco, he worked for a law firm that was willing to pay his law-school tuition, but he was reluctant to become a lawyer. He changed his mind and received his law degree from the University of Utah in 1998.

The school recommended him for a postgraduate fellowship with the Justice Department in Washington, prosecuting white-collar crime.

In 2003, he became assistant attorney general in Tucson and moved there with his wife, Charlene Buck.

Surviving, in addition to his wife and brother, are a daughter, Willa; his parents, Robert and Frances; a sister; a nephew; and a niece.

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2, at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, 8000 Cherokee St., Chestnut Hill.

Donations may be made to Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, Ala. 36104.