Remarks by Peter James Liacouras at the unveiling of his portrait as Dean of the James E. Beasley School of Law of Temple University, 1972-1982, painted by Tyler artist, Professor Neil Kosh, at the Rittenhouse Hotel in Philadelphia, April 28, 2005
When we compare my present physical state with the image created by Neil Kosh from a 1972 photograph, we vividly understand the wisdom of using younger rather than older models.
[Displays the original photo, of 1972]
This photo was taken in October 1972, at a ceremony in Tomlinson Theater commemorating the formal start of my ten years as dean. In that photo, I am flanked on either side by my two Herculean mentors, Myres Smith McDougal and Harold Dwight Lasswell. I had forgotten about this photograph, if not that commemorative event, until October 1999, twenty-seven years later. It was then that Ann and I attended the memorial service at Yale Law School honoring the life of Professor McDougal. A major emphasis in the service was on his collaboration with Professor Lasswell. This photo was prominently on display, and we wondered why. The answer was that despite their 45 years of close, continuous collaboration, the archives yielded no photograph of the two of them together. The next best thing, we were told, was this 1972 photo with this interloper separating these unsurpassed scholars.
Immediately upon returning to Temple, I asked George Ingram if he could track down that 1972 photo from our archives, have my image removed, rearrange the spacing, and produce a photo with only McDougal and Lasswell, side by side. He complied.
[Displays the revised photo, of only McDougal and Lasswell]
We made five copies, sent three to Yale for the archives, a fourth to their closest collaborator, Professor W. Michael Reisman, and the fifth for my office. It rests under a glass cover on my desk as a daily reminder that but for many, many, many persons I wouldn’t be here today.
I knew then that I would retire in two years and the Board of Trustees would likely commission two portraits, one for my years as President and the other for my happiest years, those as Dean. So, I requested that the same expert produce another cropping, this one containing only my image for use as the Law School-era portrait. We ordered one copy of this later mutation.
[Displays the cropped photo, of only PJL]
In 2000, I handed this cropped photo to my long time friend, the distinguished artist Professor Neil Kosh. Ignoring for the moment the person now speaking, we can appreciate Neil’s flattering transformation of the face in the photo into this handsome portrait. Neil Kosh would have joined us tonight, but a time conflict with his final painting class for graduating seniors prevented his attendance. I thank Neil for another artistic masterpiece that hides physical and emotional blemishes known to my peers.
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There is a larger purpose, however, in retracing the origin and mutations leading to this portrait. It is this:
A portrait like this one contains the image of one individual. It is prominently displayed as though that person was responsible for, or representative of, an entire era of an institution. We know better. A person lives and leads within a community. Every such person is the beneficiary of the nurturing, support and brilliant contributions of a total community of which each of us is one part – family, friends, mentors, colleagues, students, alumni, co-workers at all levels, bosses, the institution’s history, culture and mission, timing and Lady Luck.
Another incomplete image but one more representative of the vibrancy of Temple Law School in the 1970’s is expressed in this photo taken in 1973. It is the first group faculty photo ever taken, and on the steps of brand new Klein Hall.
[Displays the faculty group photo of 1973]
There we were: Joe Marshall, Bob Reinstein, Dolores Sloviter, Herman Stern, Sam Polsky, Elden Magaw, Warren Ballard, Larry Park, Mike Libonati, Diane Maleson, Peter Sevareid, Pat Swygert, Ruth Kovnat, Bill Traylor, Marty Vinikoor, Keith Hey, Sid Willig, Herb Myers, Bob Hachenburg, Aaron Schreiber, and other faculty colleagues … beaming confidently about the future. Handsell Minyard, Olan Lowrey and Erwin Surrency were in class and unavailable for the photo on that sunny afternoon. Alumni Carl Singley, Rob Bartow, Joe Passon and Sharon Harzenski were in Graduate School and joined the faculty during the next three years. Judge Clifford Scott Green, who taught as an adjunct for 25 years, was in court. I could go on and on.
Also out of camera range but organizing those events and administering just everything else at the Law School were secretaries and assistants, associates, librarians, custodians – Marjorie Broderick, Freddie Sanford, Sandi Weckesser, Mary Berman, Angela Racciatti, Beth Farnback, Vera McPhilomy, Charles Duncan, Ernie Jones, Bob Nay, Larry Reilly, John Necci, Eleanora Jones, Dorothy Lee, Mary Ann Collins, Mary Nauman, Brenda Washington, Carolyn Black, Retta Jackson and Gwen Deal, to name just a fraction of the full staff.
Also absent from this photo are the permanent representatives of every era and the reason we have a school in the first place – the students and alumni.
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Imagery through art, poetry, architecture, photography, music, theater, original manuscripts and portraits help define events and even eras. They create, personalize and accentuate a feature of the whole. They inspire and disillusion. They can remind us of both continuity and change in an institution. But they cannot tell the full story nor do they describe the key elements of any era.
It is the totality of our actions and perspectives that account for the true record of an era. Events may be cropped by historians, just as we cropped the original 1972 photograph leading to this portrait. Distortion and enhancement through the creative genius of an artist expressing a feature of the whole, may inspire or disillusion us. But they are not accurate representations of the whole. We measure progress at a law school through the full panoply of programmatic achievements initiated, improved upon, and continued through the education and support of students and the larger community, by the scholarly contributions of the faculty that preserve individual liberties, further human rights and protect democratic institutions. Those are the reasons we devote ourselves to Temple Law School, not selective imagery or the exaggerated beauty of the photographer, cartoonist, spinner of facts.
In the 1970’s, we were building upon 75 years of commitment, struggle, development and progress – underappreciated but real success of a hearty, practical committed faculty and staff pursuing the Founder’s metaphor “Acres of Diamonds.”
Our particular era also contributed to that history through such activities as the Sp.A.C.E. Program for fair and sensible admission policies into the professions; by recruiting and welcoming the first African Americans and women to our faculty and administration; by aggressively seeking out for inclusion worthy students and staff from groups historically excluded in the legal profession; by pioneering efforts in clinical legal education and in law-related education for secondary school students through Temple L.E.A.P.; by expanding the Temple Legal Aid Office into a full-service unit serving the immediate community; by inaugurating international and comparative law programs with law schools in Italy, Israel, Ghana and Greece; through a rigorous curriculum that transcended local and regional emphases with national and international dimensions; through major writing requirements for all students; and by attracting an array of legal scholars and exceptional practitioners whose contributions enhanced the profession and society.
Those represent the contributions we celebrate today. Those were the products of Joe Harbaugh, Tony Bocchino, Phyllis Beck, Graduate Fellows, and scores of other innovators. The image I seek to convey tonight is of celebrating the thousands of dedicated persons who, individually and collectively, led Temple to the present, with a promising era just ahead.
While the imagery of this lovely portrait by Neil Kosh captures but a sliver of an era, I thank you for it.
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What has always inspired my confidence is not a preoccupation with the past, but of tomorrow. Temple Law School is well-positioned to capture the future. The Law School has leaped ahead during the past two decades in fulfilling its mission. International and national prominence has been attained without losing the soul of the institution or running away from its history.
With Bob Reinstein at the helm during these past 15 years, the Law School has assembled a remarkable faculty, student body, curricula and campuses that exploit the ever-advancing global communication technologies, terrific alumni and financial support. We’ll always remember James E. Beasley, Leonard and Lynne Barrack, Murray H. Shusterman and thousands of others who have underwritten the scholarly and applied contributions of the faculty and education of our students. What has evolved is this genuinely diverse, dynamic, intellectually vibrant environment that only the most optimistic souls in the 1970’s could even have dared to envision.
It is this total community that I salute through the person of our incomparable Dean Robert J. Reinstein. I know we can count on the continued wise counsel and support of the Law School’s Board of Visitors chaired by Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica, and of the University’s Board of Trustees chaired by our friend and benefactor Chairman Howard Gittis.
With Bob Reinstein leading the way, I fully expect a future of unlimited achievement for the Law School and University.
Finally, on a personal note, Ann, Greg and Leslie are with me tonight. They and the rest of the Liacouras family join me in thanking you for my 42 years of undiluted happiness as part of the Law School, and for the occasion of this unveiling to express my love.