Mushlin, Michael B.

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Pace Law ReviewVolume 17Issue 3 Tribute 1997Celebrating the Life of Barbara C. SalkenArticle 2June 1997Remarks of Michael B. Mushlin, Presiding at theMemorial Service Celebrating the Life of ProfessorBarbara C. SalkenMichael B. MushlinPace University School of Law, mmuslin@law.pace.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plrThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at DigitalCommons@Pace. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pace LawReview by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Pace. For more information, please contact cpittson@law.pace.edu.Recommended CitationMichael B. Mushlin, Remarks of Michael B. Mushlin, Presiding at the Memorial Service Celebrating theLife of Professor Barbara C. Salken, 17 Pace L. Rev. 3 (1997)Available at: http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plr/vol17/iss3/2TributesRemarks of Michael B. Mushlin, Presidingat the Memorial Service Celebrating theLife of Professor Barbara C. SalkenNovember 21, 1996Today in the presence of her family this community gathersto celebrate the life of Professor Barbara Salken. For thirteenyears she graced these halls with high intelligence, beauty,boundless energy, infectious laughter, common sense, generos-ity, unadulterated honesty, . . . and for the last months of herlife with profound bravery and fortitude. She did this with ab-solute dedication to us and with a love for us which is startlingin its sincerity and its simplicity. In the process she trans-formed countless lives. Many of those persons are here today;many of you are involved in the administration of justice, acause for which Professor Salken worked passionately. Youperform that arduous critical task far better and with more skilland compassion because of the influence of Professor Salken.You are the legacy of her life.Barbara was a master teacher and a superb scholar. Shewas my friend and my colleague. From my first day here,barely a year after she first arrived, until this October 17th mycareer here was shaped and strengthened by Barbara. We bothcame from a background in public interest law. (Indeed, we hadworked for the Legal Aid Society in the same building sometwenty years ago, albeit in different offices.) We both faced theprospect of learning how to become competent teachers andscholars; we both thought it would be nice to achieve tenurehere. We reviewed what each other wrote. We learned evi-dence law together and team taught it once in name. In truth, I1PACE LAW REVIEWwill always in a sense teach the class with her because her in-fluence on me is so intense. There wasn't a day that I didn'tspeak to Barbara often to argue points of law with her to thepoint of fatigue.Typical of Barbara was the following exchange which hap-pened in more or less this fashion more times than I can count.It would begin with a simple inquiry about a point of evidencelaw that troubled her: say the Former Testimony Exception tothe Hearsay Rule. "I'm having trouble understanding it," shewould say. I would invariably respond, "That's easy, I figuredthat out a long time ago. Here's how it works." She would sitdown at my desk taking the stance of an eager student at thefoot of her favorite professor. We would then chat. By the timeour chat got very far it was apparent to me, from her questionsand my responses, that I had no idea what I was talking aboutand that the topic was a lot more complex and nuanced than Ihad imagined. (Although she didn't suggest anything of thesort.) In time, the talk would end, I would have come to a newunderstanding of the law, and Barbara would leave never onceindicating that she had taught me so much. Instead, with acharacteristic turn of her head she would nod and thank me formy terrific help.Every day we walked together to lunch. She was, and re-mains, a part of my life. I know what I say is true for me isequally true for many others who looked to her for support andfor strength, and who benefitted from exposure to her brilliantmind. I have never known anyone who had as many people whoconsidered her their best friend as she. What she gave me shegave to many others. My gratitude to her for her friendship ismore than I can ever truly express. The irony is that she saw itexactly the other way. I learned this most fully when, in mylast conversation with her, she looked at me from her hospitalbed and said with a smile and a tone of satisfaction: "I havesuch good friends here."Today we will hear from a representative group drawn fromalumni, students, faculty and friends who will speak to us abouttheir relationship with Barbara. Many, many more could havespoken and would have wished to. But to keep the event fromlasting too long we have shortened the list drastically. Thewords each speaks are, of course, each person's own. But in[Tribute2http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/plr/vol17/iss3/21997] TRIBUTE TO BARBARA C. SALKEN 5speaking to us they will also speak for us, and through theirpersonal recollections give meaning to the collective emotionsthat draw us to this place today.Eleanor Roosevelt said that to find true universal rights,start in the small places where people live and work. In thissmall place, in this brief time, we had in our midst a person whoexemplifies what Eleanor Roosevelt meant. We are fortunatethat Barbara Salken chose this place. Here she gave freely ofherself, here she reached her prime, here we were the benefi-ciaries of her enormous talent. With this richness bestowed-even if for too brief a time-how can we not celebrate the life ofBarbara Salken?3

Remarks of Michael B. Mushlin, Presiding at the Memorial Service Celebrating the Life of Professor Barbara C. Salken

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Remarks of Michael B. Mushlin, Presiding at the Memorial Service Celebrating the Life of Professor Barbara C. Salken

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