Andrea R. Broad, 66, lawyer, mother and volunteer

Andrea R. Broad, 66, of Bala Cynwyd, a lawyer and dedicated civic volunteer, died Thursday, Feb. 23, of ovarian cancer at home.

Beautiful, lively, and fun, Mrs. Broad had loads of energy that she channeled into myriad projects, many at the same time.

In the early 1980s, she was one of the first female law associates for the Philadelphia firm of Rawle & Henderson, and she worked in the mid- to late 1980s as an associate and then partner in a Norristown law practice with Samuel Trueblood.

In the early 1990s, she was recruited by Temple University School of Law to run a career placement program. It was so successful that she was given the title of assistant dean for career planning and placement, said her husband, Louis T. Broad. She also taught legal writing.

From Temple, she moved on to the Ben Franklin Technology Foundation, a partnership that fostered startup companies, and she became the CEO or general counsel for a number of startups developing medical and other software.

Starting in January 2013, she served as general counsel for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America at its national headquarters in Philadelphia. "She loved this job more than any of the other hats she wore in her career," her husband said.

In January 2015, the organization moved its national headquarters to Tampa. Mrs. Broad left the group and devoted herself to volunteer work – and, as she told her friends, "becoming a full-time grandmother."

Born and reared in Philadelphia, Mrs. Broad graduated from Olney High School and earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1972 from Temple University, and a law degree in 1979 from Temple University Law School.

Because her parents initially were not in favor of women pursuing advanced education, Mrs. Broad "had to do it all on her own," her husband said. "She worked during the day and went to law school at night." When she received her law degree, however, her parents were thrilled at the accomplishment.

In 1975, she married Broad, a physician at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Their two children are both lawyers. The family has lived in Bala Cynwyd for 35 years.

Active in civic organizations, Mrs. Broad was a member of Impact100 Philadelphia, a group that aids charitable initiatives; a board member of the Nathaniel Adamczyk Foundation in Wynnewood, which does research on childhood illnesses; and a board member of Support Center for Child Advocates, which recruits volunteer lawyers to represent abused and neglected children. In April 2013, she was honored as the organization's Distinguished Advocate.

On May 20, 2013, Mrs. Broad was featured in the Main Line Times as "volunteer of the week."

Her highest-profile volunteer post was as an early member of Women in International Leadership, a nonprofit founded in 2007 that aims to improve the status of businesswomen around the world. As the head of the group's travel committee, Mrs. Broad arranged trips to Guatemala and Haiti so that group members could meet with female entrepreneurs.

Mrs. Broad enjoyed singing in the chorus of the Savoy Company's Gilbert and Sullivan operettas for three years in the 2000s. She told the Main Line Times that the operettas were not unlike her work with Women in International Leadership. "In both, you're surrounded by people working together for something that's bigger than any of them individually," she was quoted as saying.

Her other hobbies were gardening, making pottery, reading, traveling, cooking, and singing lullabies to grandson Fletcher Leib.

Above all, her husband said, she was a wonderful mother who molded her children into people who were not afraid to think outside the box or to go overseas on public service projects.

In addition to her husband of 41 years and her grandson, she is survived by children Emily Broad Leib and Eric; a sister; a brother; and nieces and nephews.

A funeral service was Sunday, Feb. 26.

Memorial donations may be made to the Support Center for Child Advocates via http://sccalaw.org; Big Brothers Big Sisters of America via http://www.bbbs.org; or the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition via http://ovarian.org.