Richard Sheppard Arnold
     >>Honorary Degree Citation

Richard Sheppard Arnold, those who nominated you for this award said, to a person, that Colby could not have selected a more fitting candidate. As Morton A. Brody was, you are a man of extraordinary integrity, compassion and humanity. You graduated first in your class from Harvard Law School, served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, and then practiced law for several years in Washington, D.C., and Arkansas before joining the staff of Arkansas Senator Dale Bumpers. In 1978 you were named U.S. District Judge for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas, and two years later you were appointed to the Eighth Circuit, where you served as chief judge from 1992 to 1998. You now are senior judge of that court. You have said that as a judge, "all I have to do is do right. Every day when I come to work and pick up a file, that is my only job. Let right be done." Your version of "letting right be done" was described in a letter to the selection committee from U.S. Third Circuit Chief Judge Edward R. Becker: "Judge Arnold's contributions to the welfare of the judiciary have been selfless, his opinions scholarly, his intellect imposing, his judgment impeccable and seasoned, his wit dry, his demeanor gentlemanly, his integrity total, and his compassion and humanity infinite." Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia added: "He is one of those jurists whose opinion one will always read carefully and whose dissent will prompt a closer look at whether certiorari should be granted." The esteem of your colleagues also is evident in their electing you to the executive committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States and to the chair of its budget committee. And those who have clerked for you consider you mentor, friend and exemplar. "People come to the court building for help," wrote former clerk Hillary Sale, now a professor of law at the University of Iowa, "and his clerks quickly learn that help is given - freely, with warmth and without condescension."