Alumni and colleagues share memories of a scholar with a generous heart and a wry smile.

John Hart Ely, Dean of the Law School from 1982 through 1987, died Oct. 25, 2003, in Miami of cancer. The obituaries that have appeared since then have hailed his contributions to constitutional law and public policy. Yet in his time at Stanford, he left another legacy: a commitment to social justice, diversity, and good humor. For a recounting of his many accomplishments, turn to page 79 in the In Memoriam section. But read on to learn how Ely personally touched the lives of students, administrators, and professors while he presided over the Law School. 

KATHLEEN M. SULLIVAN Dean and Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Stanley Morrison Professor of Law 

Very few legal scholars get to write a classic book and watch a whole generation absorb it. Democracy and Distrust is a masterpiece that combines elegant theory, raffish wit, and a heartfelt search to get the role of the Supreme Court in American democracy just right. When I visited with him in Miami a few months before his death, he said, gazing out at his beloved baywater, “I wrote the book I wanted to write.” Few scholars are ever so fortunate.

RICK MISCHEL ’87 President, The Mischel Company, Los Angeles 

My favorite memory of Dean Ely concerned his willingness to poke fun at himself. As Dean of the Law School during my attendance there, Dean Ely never seemed to put himself out of touch or reach of the student body. At our third-year dinner, Dean Ely wore a pith helmet as he was roasted by the students about to graduate. He had a big smile on his face and seemed quite happy to be at the center of the good humor of that evening.

MARGO D. SMITH ’75 Prosecuting Attorney and Former Assistant Dean of Students 

We posed for this photo [at left] shortly after John hired Tom McBride and me. I recall very little, only that we were told to appear interested and serious. We met to discuss my coming to Stanford Law School as Dean of Students. I was so nervous. His manner was totally disarming, and I was soon charmed out of my nervousness. 

The greatness of his stature as a constitutional law scholar was not lost on me. He loved teaching and being in the classroom—even though he was a bit shy. But, away from the classroom, he would relax, put his feet up on that beautiful ornate desk, and giggle at his own jokes. 

He was a friend to my family and me. My mother really enjoyed talking with him and soon counted herself as one of his friends. She never called him “Dean,” even in the company of others. After greeting him at a reception one evening, she said to him, “John, you’re getting fat.” Surprisingly, he simply smiled. He started jogging again the next day. 

He maintained Stanford Law School’s commitment to recruiting minority law students and supported everything we did to achieve that each year. One of his greatest achievements during his tenure was the implementation of the loan forgiveness program for public interest lawyers. It was a privilege to be a part of his administration. I remain honored by the opportunity to work with him and will always treasure those years as a valuable part of my career. 

DEBORAH RHODE Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law 

In the quarter century that I have been at Stanford, the change in the Law School that makes me proudest is its growing commitment to service in the public interest. This commitment is one of the legacies of John Ely’s deanship. John was deeply concerned with social justice, in practice as well as principle, and he wanted students to share that concern. Under his leadership, Stanford helped to launch the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, and the nation’s first loan forgiveness program for law graduates who accepted low-wage public interest work. He used his platform as Dean to remind students of the opportunities and obligations that they assumed as professionals, and urged them to find some way to leave the world better than they found it. John certainly did. We mourn his loss and celebrate his life.

MIGUEL A. MÉNDEZ Adelbert H. Sweet Professor of Law 

John had high standards for Stanford. He wanted to make sure we attracted the best scholars and students. He was also concerned about the diversity of students and faculty.

TOM CAMPBELL Dean of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and former Professor of Law, Stanford Law School 

He was the leading constitutional law expert of his time, a superb scholar, and an even more superb individual. . . . In addition to his scholarship, he was a patriot.

MARGARET M. RUSSELL ’84, JSM ’90 Professor, Santa Clara University School of Law, and former Director of Public Interest Programs and Acting Assistant Dean of Students, Stanford Law School

Over the past 20 years, I have had the good fortune of knowing John as a dean, constitutional law professor, employer, colleague, and friend. We first met when I, as one of a handful of law students interested in starting the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, approached the brand-new Dean in 1982 to ask for his support. Beneath his seemingly curmudgeonly exterior, we found a humane and deeply supportive ally who encouraged us to organize the project and to pursue careers in public service. In my third year, I took his constitutional theory seminar and experienced in person the witty, cogent analysis that pervades his writings. In 1986, John created a new staff position, Director of Public Interest Programs, and hired me to (in his words) “figure out ways to encourage students to consider public interest law as part of their post-graduation plans.” After John departed Stanford a few years later, we were in touch far less often, but he remained a cherished and respected friend. 

As I mourn John’s death, two memories spring to mind most vividly. The first springs from John’s love of travel. In 1990, plaintiff’s lawyers in a constitutional war powers case, Dellums v. Bush, were trying desperately to find John to request his participation in an amicus brief by leading constitutional law scholars. John’s assent was not only critical but also necessary in order to secure certain other scholars’ signatures. But John was on a traveling sabbatical and incommunicado. My husband, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, remembered that I knew John and asked me to track him down. I called him at 6 a.m. in Eastern Europe and woke him up to explain the constitutional emergency. Happily, he agreed to read and join in the brief. (We lost the case.) 

The second memory is much more recent. I called John a few weeks before his death, having just heard of his illness. With voice mails and e-mails, I had not had the chance to speak with him directly for several years. John was obviously in extreme pain, but mustered the energy to crack a few jokes and to reconnect. His humor, intellect, and affection were and are great gifts to his family and friends. 

MARC ZILVERSMIT ’87 Criminal defense lawyer, San Francisco 

Dean Ely always made a point to call me by name when he passed me on the quad or around the Law School. It was always a bit startling. As a writer of the yearly parody Law Revue, I had perhaps started, and certainly had perpetuated, the image of Dean Ely as so aloof that he could not remember the names of the students, not even (in one scene from “The Power of Law”) future Justices Rehnquist and O’Connor. When he announced he would be visiting New York Law School, we joked that he had originally agreed to teach at New York University Law School, but had forgotten its name. I took his “Hello, Marc”s to be less of an attempt to dispel the myth, and more a bit of friendly repartee—a wink to let me know that he knew my name and the jokes I had written at his expense. More than simply a keen legal mind, Dean Ely was always a good sport.

ANDREW MCBRIDE ’87 Partner, Wiley & Rein Fielding LLP 

John Ely had the kind of broad and inquiring mind that is rare indeed. His love for the law was obvious. I was lucky enough to attend his seminar on international law, during which he opened his home to his students for some very interesting and far-ranging theoretical discussions of the law. His was a mind that was not only talented, but generous in the way that it touched other minds. He was a true scholar in every sense of the word.

NANCY B. RAPOPORT ’85 Dean and Professor of Law, University of Houston Law Center 

I just remember his first day as dean, when someone (I don’t remember who) brandished a sign welcoming him, and a letter from him that I received a few months ago, where he said some very kind things to me. I had thought that he hadn’t really known me, but that was clearly not true. He was a true mensch.