Robert Stein, B.S.L. '60, J.D. '61

Born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in rural Arizona, Sandra Day was just 16 years old when she graduated high school and was accepted to Stanford University. She went on to attend Stanford Law School at a time when only 1 percent of all law students in the United States were women.

In 1952, she graduated third in her law school class of 102. Yet despite her impressive academic achievement, OConnor was rejected time and again by law firms; her only job offer was as a legal secretary. She turned that job down and directed her attention away from private practice, taking a position as deputy county attorney in San Mateo County, California. She has said that her first foray into public service was a defining moment in her life.

Over the next dozen years, OConnor followed a varied professional and personal path. When her husband, John Jay OConnor, was stationed in Germany for three years as a member of the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps, she worked as a civilian lawyer for the Quatermaster Corps. Next, she ran her own law firm before becoming a full-time mother to her three sons, born between 1958 and 1964.

She returned to the workplace in 1965 as assistant state attorney general in Arizona. Four years later, she was appointed to a state senate seat and then reelected twice. When she was elected state senate majority leader in 1972, she was the first woman to hold such a position in the United States.

OConnor was serving on the Arizona Court of Appeals when, in 1981, she was tapped by President Ronald Reagan for the Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Potter Stewart. She was confirmed by a vote of 990. Today, OConnor is recognized not only as a trailblazer but as a thoughtful centrist on the court who cast the deciding vote in several landmark decisions, including rulings on abortion, voting rights, affirmative action, and prayer in school. Her remarkable leadership is reflected in the title of a new biography, Sandra Day OConnor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice, by Joan Biskupic.

I have known Justice OConnor for more than 20 years, since she visited the University of Minnesota as a jurist-in-residence when I was dean of the Law School. During my years as executive director of the American Bar Association, I have had the privilege of working closely with OConnor on the ABAs program of legal assistance in Central Europe and Eurasia. As part of that initiative we have traveled together to many cities in that region over the past 12 years.

OConnor announced her retirement last July and concluded her historic term on the court when her successor, Samuel Alito, took his seat earlier this year. I will be honored to welcome Justice OConnor back to campus on May 23, when she speaks at the UMAA's 102nd Annual Celebration. Please join us; I can promise you that shell be thoughtful, pragmatic, and memorableas always.

- Robert Stein