Guido Calabresi
     >>Honorary Degree Citation

Guido Calabresi, you are the quintessential example of the immense contributions that immigrant people have made to this nation of immigrants. Born in Milan, you were but six years old when you and your parents escaped fascism to come to the United States. At that tender age you knew something of four languages but only three words in English: "yes," "no," and "briefcase." Seventy years later, the essence of your labor ­ albeit accompanied by thousands of other words ­ still devolves to the simple "yes" or "no" and your briefcase has contained much evidence of your remarkable insight into American law and jurisprudence. Entering Yale at the age of 17, you graduated first in your class and repeated that lofty position five years later at the Yale Law School. Following a clerkship at the Supreme Court with Justice Hugo Black, you returned to Yale, this time as a teacher. At the age of 29, you became the youngest full professor in the school's history. As a legal scholar, you are known for your 1970 contribution "The Cost of Accidents" which has served as the basis of many tort law reforms over the past three decades. You began a remarkable tenure as Dean of the Law School in 1985, beloved by your students and revered by your academic colleagues. Ten years later President Clinton named you to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. From the bench you have faced emotionally charged life-and-death issues with creativity and courage, acknowledging, in your own words, that decisions on these matters "cannot be made decently, let alone well, and yet must be made." Colby College is proud to present you with the first Morton A. Brody Distinguished Judicial Service Award. It is, indeed, a most fitting tribute because your teaching, scholarship, judicial integrity, and concern for others so closely mirror the man for whom this award is named.

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