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Had there been no one before him with a mission to create opportunities for young African Americans, had there been no one who would reach back to a promising high school student and show him a path to success, had there been no one at American University interested in opening doors to Black kids from washington, and had our law school not had faculty members committed to increasing the number of Black lawyers through Affirmative Action, there would have never been a Judge Gerald Bruce Lee. Instead, we at this law school are very fortunate to have played a role in preparing this man for a career in the law during which everything he did and everything he stands for makes us proud.
Judge Lee's retirement from his lifetime appointment as a U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia is one of those happy and sad moments that life sometimes presents. We are sad because losing him from the bench means losing a judge with an unblemished record of fairness, courtesy, respect, compassion, wisdom, and thoughtfulness. Throughout his career, first as a lawyer and then as a virginia circuit court judge, and finally as a federal judge, he was a model of probity, integrity, and seriousness of purpose. His life-long project of helping others, particularly, but not only, people of color, to have opportunities for success is legendary. We will miss his on-going contributions to bending the arc of justice in the right direction. At the same time, we are happy for him, for his family, and for his friends. We are happy for him that he has time in retirement to reflect upon his life of accomplishment and action consistent with his values, goals and beliefs. Few have the right to be as proud and fulfilled as does he. We are happy for his family, his wife, his son, and particularly his grandchildren, who now can enjoy the attention from him that public duty often claimed. we are happy for his friends (and happy to be among them) who will benefit immeasurably from his wit, his companionship, and his ideas. And those of us at American University are happy because of his continuing devotion to the law school and to the...