He was my dean.  He was my first dean.  To me, he epitomized the law school dean.

 The Iowa Law School has commanded respect in the world of legal education since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.  When David arrived here in 1966, Dean Mason Ladd had reigned magisterially for a quarter of a century.  He had recruited a strong faculty, at least some of whom were young bucks, like Bill Hines and Arthur Bonfield, full of ideas and energy.  But the general attitude that seemed to prevail was “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

 When David came, change, innovate, experiment became the orders of the day.  During his five-year tenure as dean, the faculty more than doubled in size.  Almost all of us new arrivals were beginners.  The curriculum was overhauled.  A unique first year course of study was developed.  Where else in the world were first year law students exposed to International Law, Resource Planning and Conflict Resolution.  The first year small section was introduced in which students were required to complete writing assignments under the supervision not of graduate fellows, the typical model then prevailing, but of the tenure track faculty.  The Iowa small section program has been emulated at other schools, but rarely with the writing supervised by the full-time faculty.  It was not that David thought we were better writing teachers than the teaching fellows; he thought students learned the essential analytic skills of a lawyer if their writing derived from substantive courses.

 Deans are sometimes viewed as a little pompous.  Even in Iowa, where pretentiousness is one plant that does not flourish in this fertile soil, older members of the bench and bar expected their dean to be ceremonious.  Introductions at a CLE panel would run something like Joe Smith, Tom Brown, Mary Edwards, and Dean Vernon, or perhaps just “The Dean.”  But David would have none of that.  He was just “Good ol’ Dave.”  Of course we all noticed what the initials spelled.

 He was our dean in turbulent times.  As Sandy mentioned, he never expected to be organizing faculty and students to stand fire watch overnight in the law school nor be advising the president about preserving the university and its values in a time of campus strife; certainly not strolling through the library with a state police colonel opening brief cases to determine if the latest bomb threat during exam period was really a hoax.  Students and some faculty were angry — angry at the Vietnam War, at the university, at the government, at the world.  But Dave, as dean, was available for them to take out their anger on.  At times he must surely have felt, as another dean commented, “like the javelin thrower who won the toss and elected to receive.”  But through it all, he never lost his sense of priorities, his vision for the law school, nor his sense of humor.

 He was first and last a teacher.  He never stopped teaching when he was dean (or the acting provost); he would go to places like Alabama to teach summer school.  You really have to love teaching to teach summer school in Alabama.

 He taught his novice teachers how to teach, by example and encouragement more than precept.  I still have my first year students stand when called on.

 He cared about students.  Leigh Greenhaw, now a lecturer at Washington University, responsible for introducing our non-US graduate students to American law, was a law student at Iowa in the early 1970’s, one of 2 or 3 women students in her class.  When her husband took a job in southern Illinois, Leigh naturally wanted to follow him.  She talked to David Vernon about finishing at St. Louis University.  He told her she had to go to Washington University Law School, got on the phone to Dean Tad Foote, told him Leigh was an outstanding student, exaggerating according to Leigh, and that they should admit here.  They did.

 Dave’s influence with Tad was high; Tad was trying to recruit Dave.  Dave visited Washington University for a year in the early 70’s; some of us were concerned that Tad’s courting might succeed.  Mary Jo Small and I scoured Iowa City stores for every pair of red socks we could locate, boxed them up and sent them to Dave with the message:  “We need you here.”  He came back.
 Later in the 1970’s Dave visited Washington University again.  The class of 1977 selected him as their graduation speaker.  It is a rare honor for a visiting professor to be chosen for a graduation speaker.

 Dave’s tenure as dean was relatively brief, at least by Iowa standards, five years only.  His influence on this law school, on this university, and on those of us privileged to know him will endure to time’s far horizon.  Fortunate indeed I have been to have him as my dean, role model, mentor and friend.