Helen E. Bertas

Remarks of Peter J. Liacouras, Chancellor of Temple University, at a ceremony of the  American Hellenic Lawyers Association of Philadelphia honoring a lifetime of achievement by Helen E. Bertas, Esquire, Thursday, June 23, 2005

              I bring the warmest felicitations and congratulations from Helen E. Bertas’

Law School alma mater, Temple University, for her remarkable career and a lifetime of achievement.

            It is a privilege to share these personal observations about Helen, a lifelong friend, and to add a word about her parents and their generation.

            I have observed Helen both closely and from afar for seven, going on eight, decades.

            My remarks tonight will be divided into two major phases in our life together in the Philadelphia region, one as members of the hospitable yet at first xenophobic Greek-American community, and the second as colleagues in the legal profession.

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            The first major phase was growing up together in the inter-war Greek-American community of Philadelphia during the 1930’s and 1940’s, and into the early 1950’s.

            In that era, when the Liacouras and Bertas families were in the food business, our parents embraced a radical social experiment:

            They allowed, even encouraged, their daughters to go to college!

            The Bertas sisters and my own sisters, among others, went on to excel in higher education.  Contrary to dire warnings from hard core traditionalists, those seven girls and others turned out quite well. They vindicated the courage and far-sightedness of our immigrant parents, as did cousin Nettie Manos, Effie Roebus and others of you in attendance this evening – most especially Theresa Chletcos –  who underwent similar experiences in that bygone era.

            As a youngster, I heard warnings and gossip along the lines that college would give Greek-American girls too much tharos independence from traditional male dominance, and destroy Greek culture through “over Americanization.” 

            Our parents knew better.

            They believed that the same qualities characterized as negatives by the critics would in fact improve the lives of their daughters. As each entered college and began to expand her intellectual curiosity and knowledge of other cultures, there were liberating effects of those parental decisions on the Greek-American community, including boys and girls.

            Those immigrant Greek grocers and restauranteurs with little formal schooling had demonstrated greater wisdom and truer nurturing than many of their male counterparts with college educations. Mr. and Mrs. Bertas, in particular, impressed me as forward-looking and as sophisticated as any in our family’s circle of friends.

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            Helen Bertas and my sister Helen were about the same age. They were good friends from St. George’s Church and Greek socials.  So I got to know Helen Bertas up close and better than most Greek-American female non-relatives of that time. I recall Helen as forceful and sharp in her expression, and usually got in the last word. She did not tolerate fools gladly. She was honest and independent in her thinking, ambitious, dependable, wanting to serve others, proud of her heritage and family. Among my three sisters’ many, many friends, Helen Bertas stood out to me as a girl to be reckoned with.

            While maintaining the religion and language of the Hellenes, our community had already undergone subtle but steady change in the nearly fifty years of its existence in Philadelphia.

            More fundamental change was on the way.

            Helen Bertas’ personal success against the odds would a big reason why.

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            This brings me to the second major phase of interacting with Helen – as professionals.  

            By the time in 1952 that I enrolled in Professor Harold Budd’s business law class at Drexel, Helen Bertas was already a young lawyer. She was an associate of Mr. Budd in his law office and in his courses at Drexel.

            She was one of only two or three women in her law school classes. Like many others, she had earned her law degree while working fulltime. She was, however, one of the few to excel along every step in her path to success.

            Knowing Helen all my life had prepared me not to be surprised by her accomplishments. Yet like others, I often slipped, forgetting that her advancement had been achieved in the legal profession that males always claimed exclusively as their own. 

            She had become a pioneer, albeit a young one!

            In the 1950’s, most of the talk and attention in Philadelphia’s Greek-American community  was centered on the successes of Greek businessmen like the Stephanos, Sosangelis and Lacas families, and on the careers of professional men like my Uncle Gregory Lagakos, Nicholas Hetos, Abraham Michaels, Peter Petropoulos, Peter Theodos, Michael Dorizas, Nicholas Padis, George Pavlos.  

            It was especially through the legal careers of men that civic recognition and increasing political clout of Greek-Americans were expected to be realized. That would, it was believed, result in added respect for, and pride in, this closely-knit, hardworking community.

            To them, Helen Bertas’ pioneering deeds even if known and respected as unique, were undervalued. For many in the Greek-American community, it was like a footnote to the real story.  Remember, we’re talking about the late 1940’s and Fifties when the expression “Women in Law” referred to legal secretaries and “Men in Law” to lawyers.

            It was in that “man’s world” that Helen’s standard of excellence, her skill, drive, dependability, organization, incredible work ethic, and indispensability to her remarkably forward-looking boss, Harold Budd, led over time to her overcoming the long-standing custom of exclusion and prejudice toward career women.  

            Those who encountered Helen professionally came face-to-face not with a footnote but with a very effective, no-holds-barred lawyer, a courageous advocate on behalf of her clients, a leader in progressive causes.

            She was a professional trailblazer among Greek-American women in Philadelphia.

            She would rise to partner in the law firm of Budd and Bertas and to leadership in the Philadelphia Bar and nationally among immigration lawyers.

            By the late 1960’s, years after my return to Philadelphia and decision to commit my energies to helping open up the legal profession to minorities and women, Helen was already an example and inspiration for me.

            More significantly, Helen had become a role model for young women and others who had already raised a family but now wanted to pursue another career.

            The liberating 1960’s and Seventies were transition decades to today’s expectations that women have a legal right to expect the same opportunities as men.

            Helen Bertas succeeded before there was Title IX, before Affirmative Action and similar programs of inclusion that we now take for granted as legally guaranteed.

            She beat the odds.   She became, figuratively, a giant.  

            The Helen Bertas I had known as a child had successfully defied the stereotypes to become a highly respected immigration lawyer and leading Philadelphia lawyer.  

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            It was also in this second phase as professionals that I began encountering Helen E. Bertas as a distinguished alumna of Temple Law School. 

            While Dean of the Law School and later as President of the University, I interviewed scores of her classmates, law professors and peers. Without exception, their respect for this dynamo came through unconditionally with colorful anecdotes about her intellectual toughness and perseverance enlivening their accolades.

            I also vividly recall the evening in 2000 at the annual Temple’s Founder’s Day Banquet when the 50 year classes of the University are honored.

            As President, I publicly singled out Helen Bertas as the one member of all those classes from 16 schools and colleges of the University because, as I noted, she had been a personal inspiration and role model in my life. 

            Helen, you inspired me as a boy, as a young man, as a colleague in the Bar and at Temple, and you inspire all of us today with your courage.

            You were under-appreciated fifty years ago, but today you are a hero to all of us.

            Thank you for teaching us to overcome.

            Thank you for setting us on the pathway to equality and justice for everyone.

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            And now, Helen, I have a surprise:  the last word will come not from me but from a letter written by Harold Jethro Budd, Esquire, to Temple Law School’s Dean Benjamin F. Boyer. 

            Mr. Budd’s letter is dated March 20, 1947, fifty-eight years ago, in an era when letters of recommendation were brutally candid, factual and in which the virtues of the person recommended were understated.

            I retrieved a copy of the letter from our archives this afternoon.  Here is what Mr. Budd thought of you on March 20, 1947:

            Helen, were he here tonight, Harold Budd would be bursting with pride – not because “I told you so” but because of your actual accomplishments.

            You have brought full honor, justice and credit to all of us. 

              AXIOU.

              AXIA.