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Charles Alan Wright^
We celebrate today the life of one of the greatest, grandest, and most complex men any of us will ever know.1
I speak as one of the five decades of law students that he taught, inspired, and made to believe that the law is not merely a craft, but a high calling.
And, as his friend of 40 years.
As Justice Holmes put it, "the one and only success [a man] can command is to bring to his work a mighty heart."2
In this, Charlie succeeded beyond imagination. His legal scholarship has guided and informed the practice and procedure of all our courts, state and federal, for decades.
He was deeply committed to the Constitution and those freedoms that define America. His favorite case was Barnette,3 where the Supreme Court held that Jehovah's Witnesses could not be required to salute the American flag: "I cherish the American flag and the things for which it stands; I cherish it especially because, since Barnette, it has stood for freedom of thought."4
No one has done more to move the Law School to national prominence. As Justice Ginsburg said, fairly: "Like a Colossus stands Charles Alan Wright at the summit of [the legal] profession. . . ."5
As Dean Laycock pointed out, it was of immense importance to the University...