It is often said of someone how many lives they touched in their own life.  In David's case there is tangible evidence of that.  Yesterday I was talking about Dave with Phil Shelton, President of the Law School Admission Council, on whose Board David served.   Although Phil and I have no firm data, we believe David taught as a visiting professor or professor at more law schools than anyone else in history, so he truly touched many lives.

 I first met Dave in the early 1980's when he agreed to teach a Regional Summer Institute of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity held at the Law School at which I was Dean, Washburn University School of Law.  Dave served as mentor to me as a dean and to many of our young faculty.  In his short time with us that summer he helped many faculty begin their careers as scholars, and I might add, he routinely beat the best possible tennis players we could throw at him.  I don't think anyone beat him the entire summer.

Dave served the AALS in many capacities, including editing its scholarly journal, The Journal of Legal Education, serving as the AALS delegate to the ABA House of Representatives and as President in 1983.  One gets some indication of David's breadth just by looking at the titles of his newsletter columns as AALS President:  Curriculum and Lawyer Proficiency, Professional Development for Law Faculty, The Status of Clinicians in Legal Education, and The Accreditation and Membership Function of the ABA and AALS.

 Dave still had a keen interest in the membership review function of the AALS as recently as this past March when AALS honored its past presidents at a meeting in Palm Springs where we asked the past presidents to serve as a focus group to consider, among other things, the membership structure of the AALS.  Dave was the leader of a small group of past presidents at the meeting who were advocating that AALS should essentially abolish its membership requirements and become an open membership organization.  Dave brought his usual powerful logic and analysis to bear in making his case.  He also however brought to bear his customary sense of humanness, and openness to the ideas of others when, near the end of the session, he said something to this effect, "Well since so many of you feel otherwise I'm tempted to stick to my guns, but the truth is you have actually persuaded me that you're right."

 The combination of Dave's tenacious, but friendly questioning and that constant warm smile and sense of humanness touched many of us.  Earlier this week I was visiting with the dean of another law school shortly after learning of Dave's death.  The Dean said he first knew who Dave Vernon was when he attended an AALS new law teacher's workshop at which Dave was demonstrating the Socratic method of teaching.  Dave called on the dean, who was then a new law teacher.  The dean, whose flight had been delayed causing him to arrive at about 3:00 A.M. had not read the case so he passed.  Ten minutes later he was still responding to questions about the principles of the case.  The dean told me, with a smile on his face and great admiration, "With Dave Vernon you just couldn't pass."

The AALS president who succeeded Dave, Dick Julin, said of Dave at the conclusion of Dave's year as president:  "He has served as the Association's conscience".  Today we celebrate Dave's life for his role as our conscience, our teacher and mentor, and especially our friend.  It is easy to celebrate Dave's life because we know how lasting his legacy will be.