Transcript:

Really, it all boils down to the Red Sox, right? As John and Sean has told many times, everything in life comes back to the Red Sox. Whenever I’ve gone to see him, one of the first things he asks is like, Mark, should we go to a ballgame? Or can we figure out a time to go to a ballgame? Take you to a ballgame?
Because he very much enjoys that kind of human interaction. I will wear this. But only for you, Bill. He’s the only person I know who takes the score, has a scorecard, and, and actually records every out, every pitch. Yeah, his knowledge of baseball, Red Sox. History and lore is encyclopedic. It just, he has every relevant statistic about them and, and I thought I was a big Ted Williams fan and I thought I knew put me to shame.
I’m getting emails from him very early in the day and very late in the evening. And this has always been true since I met him in 1991. I don’t know when he finds time to sleep, but he’s always got stuff going on. So, for me, he’s just like the Energizer bunny. If you walk into his office, it’s a little bit messy, I think.
And you’ll ask him about something, he’ll go, Over there, in that pile over there, about halfway down, you’ll find a case, and it will exactly be where he points to it. I could always count on enjoying my visit with him, because I knew there would be some good jazz on. You know, he’s so smart, but he, you know, he’s funny too, and he’s just absolutely fun to talk to, to be around you know, ceaselessly kind.
Pleasant, but not a dictator type. Know it all attitude, but you know, there’s a whole lot more in that brain than he’s even telling us. Welcoming and generous with his time, which he was then, and he has been multiple times since then. As I’ve been working as a labor lawyer, there have been times when I’ve, you know, kind of reached a point where I’m stuck in my research or my analysis, and I’ve thought, well, why don’t I call the former chairman of the NLRB?
Grandfatherly and supportive. Top of line adjectives are generous, hopeful, caring, and active. Engaged, because when you talk to him, he’s engaged in so many things in the world. Present, when you talk to him, he is there. You know, he pays attention, he’s, even though he’s got a million things going on, he pays attention to you.
He is very kind. His curiosity. is something that feeds that energy. It is part of what made him who he was in the beginning but also keeps him young now in his early 80s. Professional side passionate and indefatigable, and on the personal side, warm hearted and loyal. When Bill Gould gets to work on something, he really pushes to the end and doesn’t, you know, let things go and just drop things.
He, he’s really just such a persistent person. He, he was always very encouraging and you could tell that he was always interested in Helping you get to where you wanted to be I don’t remember going to him asking for things. For example, I’m going to LA do you know people there? He offered, he acted, but he wasn’t profuse.
He wasn’t, he was more silent in terms of the kind of support. And I was only in two of his classes, but he made a huge impact on me as a student. And really as a human being. Bill always thought of something. And that always conveyed his love of labor law, his concern for students, and his engagement as a scholar and teacher.
You know, other than Thurgood Marshall and a few others who were very prominent. You did not have a lot of example of successful African American lawyers. So I get to law school, and lo and behold, there’s Bill! Oh my god! Bill represented what could be for me and, I dare say, others like me in my class, who had not seen a lot of examples of success.
I think whirlwind of ideas is a great phrase to describe him, in part because, you know, he wasn’t someone who taught labor law as It’s a static subject where all these principles were settled and there was nothing new happening. He, I think, correctly saw labor law as a dynamic field that’s always changing.
I think we worked well together because we really shared a love of sports, family. and the truth. And I think those, those are things that really encapsulate a lot of what sort of drives Bill and what he’s, he’s passionate about. Bill was my mentor. I mean, I really stayed in touch with him and he says, well, have you ever thought about teaching?
I said, no. And he says, well, let me scout around and see if there are any openings. I went ahead and took the plunge and then the rest is history. I fell in love with it. I would not be a teacher today were not for Bill. He has a combination of. combination of, of o of feelings that he, and knows how to convey, to you, but back it up, y and back it up in, in, in You know, that have all those qualities.
I’ll use a baseball analogy. He’s a triple threat. In baseball, that means you can hit, run, and field. Clearly you know, one of the best labor law researchers and teachers. In our field, I use the Jackie Robinson analogy, someone like bill that comes in and is the real deal. You know, he’s, he’s a scholar.
No one questioned it. His scholarship is impeccable. It’s, it’s voluminous, an outstanding faculty person in every way. That you know, he said, Oh, we didn’t know that there was people like that out there. He opened the door, everybody learned from him, the rest of the faculty at the school, the students saw what they were capable of doing through Bill, opening that door so wide and so effectively.