Dean L. Gitter, is an entrepreneur and a real estate developer in the Catskills in New York State.

Gitter is a graduate of Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy

Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...

, Harvard College

Harvard College

Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art

London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art

The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is a leading British drama school in west London. LAMDA's president is Timothy West and its new principal is Joanna Read, who recently succeeded Peter James...

, and the Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...

.

In the 1950s, Gitter produced recordings for Riverside Records

Riverside Records

Riverside Records was a United States record label specializing in jazz. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer under his firm Bill Grauer Productions, Inc. in 1953, the label was a major presence in the jazz record industry for a decade...

, notably Odetta

Odetta

Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...

's debut album, Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues

Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues

Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues is the debut solo album by American folk singer Odetta, first released in 1956.Like much of Odetta's early work, Ballads and Blues combines traditional songs with blues covers...

. Under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 of Dean Laurence, he produced Sam Gary's

Sam Gary

Sam Gary was an African-American blues, spiritual and folk singer, who to the wider public is known for his long-lasting musical co-operation with Josh White....

 only album for the Esquire

Esquire Records

Esquire Records is the name of two defunct record labels:*Esquire Records , jazz record label founded by Carlo Krahmer and Peter Newbrook in 1947. It issued recordings by British musicians, and others, under licence, from the American Prestige label, the Chicago blues label Delmark, and the Swedish...

 (UK) and Transition (US) labels.

In 1957, Gitter recorded Ghost Ballads, released by Riverside Records. This album features Gitter singing, accompanied by his own acoustic guitar, and contains folk songs with supernatural themes. The album cover art is by Charles Addams

Charles Addams

Charles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...

.

In 1969, Gitter's University Cinema Association opened the Orson Welles Cinema

Orson Welles Cinema

The Orson Welles Cinema was a movie theater at 1001 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts that operated from 1969 to 1986. Showcasing independent films, foreign films and revivals, it became a focal point of the Boston-Cambridge film community....

 in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

.

Gitter's other business ventures include starting a Kingston-based regional TV station (WTZA), co-founding the Big Indian Spring Water Company, and running Catskill Corners, including the Emerson Resort & Spa in Mt. Tremper, New York. The Emerson Resort & Spa is a member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World, and Catskill Corners features the world's largest kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope

A kaleidoscope is a circle of mirrors containing loose, colored objects such as beads or pebbles and bits of glass. As the viewer looks into one end, light entering the other end creates a colorful pattern, due to the reflection off the mirrors...

.

Gitter is currently the Managing Partner of Crossroads Ventures, LLC, a venture capital

Venture capital

Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

 company located in Mt. Tremper, New York.

Dean Gitter is interested in spirituality

Spirituality

Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...

 and teaches meditation

Meditation

Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....

 in Big Indian, New York. His spiritual teacher was Albert Rudolph (Rudi)

Albert Rudolph

Albert Rudolph was born in Brooklyn, New York. Rudi was an entrepreneur and spiritual teacher in New York City.-Early years:...

. Gitter was the
property manager for Rudi's ashram at Big Indian from 1970-1973.