Carter, Derrick Augustus

English

ValpoScholar

Valparaiso University Law Review 
Volume 44 
Number 4 Symposium on The Civil Rights of 
Public School Students 
pp.1283-1286 
Symposium on The Civil Rights of Public School Students 
For Jack, Third World Traveler and Camouflaged Tiger 
Derrick Augustus Carter 
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr 
 Part of the Law Commons 
Recommended Citation 
Derrick Augustus Carter, For Jack, Third World Traveler and Camouflaged Tiger, 44 Val. U. L. Rev. 1283 
(2010). 
Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol44/iss4/15 
This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by 
the Valparaiso University Law School at ValpoScholar. It 
has been accepted for inclusion in Valparaiso University 
Law Review by an authorized administrator of 
ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a 
ValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu. 
 1283 
FOR JACK, THIRD WORLD TRAVELER AND 
CAMOUFLAGED TIGER 
Derrick Augustus Carter* 
As Jack Hiller neared death last fall, his mind was clear, sharp, alert, 
and aware.  During his waning days, his concerns were for others.  For 
example, he feared for his troubled housekeeper; his last message to me 
from the hospital was short and to the point—“Help her!”  When he died 
last Thanksgiving, he left instructions that he wanted no fanfare, no 
service, no funeral, and no memorial.  We have respected his wishes. But 
we have our own obligations, and they include the duty to recall with 
gratitude many things he did for us. 
I was one of Jack’s students, colleagues, and friends.  And I am a 
2010 winner of the Jack Hiller Distinguished Faculty Award for 
excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.  It’s extremely touching 
to receive an award named for someone I’ve known and admired 
throughout most of my life.  Jack had a friendly, understated, 
approachable personality.  He could read people and often met future 
friends from simply traveling along the road. 
Jack managed to combine seeming opposites into a way of living.  
He was a local community guy with an international flair.  He was a 
quiet revolutionary, encouraging rather demanding change by showing 
us the benefits of collaboration, adventure, travel, and scholarship that is 
ready to examine life in all dimensions.  “The unexamined life,” Jack was 
fond of quoting Socrates, “is not worth living.” 
Jack Hiller loved the law and he loved the arts.  He and Professor 
Dick Brauer wedded art and law with a series of wonderful exhibits in 
the atrium of the law school.  Jack had many other loves and friends.  
Many are gone, many remain.  He cared attentively for his mother, who 
died at the age of 100.  He left his home and other forms of property 
principally to his nephew.  He left a huge moral legacy to his friends 
here in Valparaiso and throughout the world. 
I am especially intrigued by the legacy of his awareness of the wide 
world around us.  The principal manifestation of this gift of Jack’s is an 
immense project he undertook with our colleagues Paul Brietzke and 
Mary Persyn (and later, with Professor Penny Andrews of the CUNY 
Law School, with too brief a stop at Valparaiso, as Guest Editor of two 
issues of the journal), in editing and publishing the Third World Legal 
Studies Journal from 1985 to 2003.  In this period Hiller, Brietzke, Persyn, 
and Andrews solicited and edited hundreds of articles on the state of 
international affairs. 
                                                 
*  Professor of Law, Valparaiso University School of Law. 
Carter: For Jack, Third World Traveler and Camouflaged Tiger
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2010
1284 VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 44 
To appreciate the awesome grandeur of this endeavor, I invite you to 
sample past issues of this journal.  You will find in these pages world-
class scholarship on the great issues of the day:  Developing Legal 
Resources with the Third World Poor, Realizing the Rights of Women, 
Police Forces and Human Rights, Reparations, Constitutional 
Reconstruction, Post-colonial Bills of Rights, Industrial Accidents, 
Pollution, Governance of Internal Security Forces, Teaching Law and 
Development, and a Middle Eastern versus Western view of Human 
Rights.  The journal also reviewed the political and military turmoil in 
many countries, describing with painstaking detail mass killings, abuses, 
systematic rapes, female circumcision, genital surgery, and brutal 
beatings for female adultery. 
The authors came from Harvard, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Indiana, 
University of Nairobi, Ghana, Ethiopia, Australia, Canada, Nigeria, 
Indonesia, Tanzania, India, New Guinea, Philippines, Cambodia, Peru, 
Australia, England, Khartoum, and France.  These authors included 
professors, government officials, and scholars at think-tanks all over the 
world.  They contributed incisive portrayals of the conditions of life in 
the Third World and decisive recommendations of practical steps needed 
to address a situation that is perilous for all of us when so many of us 
lack even the barest necessities for survival, let alone for well-being and 
the fullness of human dignity. 
Jack came to these points of view through years of experience in 
Africa and Asia.  He taught at University College, Dar-es-Salaam 
(Tanzania) and at the University of Nairobi (Kenya).  He was also a 
Fulbright Professor in Malaysia. 
It is unsurprising that the founding editor of the Third World Legal 
Studies Journal contributed the lead article in the journal’s first issue in 
1985.  Jack’s article is entitled “Lawyers, Alternative Lawyers, and 
Alternatives to Lawyers:  Of Thomas Hobbes and Rumplestiltskin.”  In 
the well-known story that Jack invokes, a young girl claims she could 
change straw to gold.  A wizard rescues her from her failed attempts, 
then demands her first-born child unless she can guess the wizard’s 
secret name.  With help, she finally guesses his name, Rumplestiltskin. 
Jack underscores the moral of the story:  “if you can name 
something, can put a label on it, then you have power over it, or, at least, 
it has no power over you.”  In this piece, Jack attempts to redefine the 
duties of lawyers and non-lawyers as social and legal activists.  In order 
to encourage “alternative lawyers and alternatives to lawyers,” Jack 
wrote, we academics must “encourage the necessary developments in 
professional socialization and legal education in order to produce a new 
Valparaiso University Law Review, Vol. 44, No. 4 [2010], Art. 15
https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol44/iss4/15
2010] Camouflaged Tiger 1285 
breed of lawyers, para-people, one might say, interested in law reform 
and public service.” 
From Valparaiso to Africa, to Europe, to Asia, and all points in 
between, Jack was there.  If I had to label Jack, per Rumplestiltskin, I’d 
call him a “camouflaged tiger.”  I recall a poem by Solomon Solomon. 
Dear God who cares for tigers, 
I have much to thank you for. 
My stripes and leafy jungle home, 
My throaty purr, my roar. 
 
I thank you for the blazing sun, 
And for the cooling shower, 
And for the tasty hunter 
I’m preparing to devour. 
 
Dear God you have been generous 
To send this meaty one, 
Encumbered by nearsightedness 
And by a faulty gun. 
 
Oh, he was easy prey to stalk! 
A most unequal match! 
I leapt on him with claws unsheathed 
And slew with quick dispatch. 
 
So now he lies before me 
With dim, unseeing eyes, 
His face bedecked with nothing 
But a look of slight surprise. 
 
And do I feel remorse’s pull? 
No. Not one guilty tug. 
It’s better he should be my lunch 
Than I should be his rug. 
 
So, God who cares for tigers 
And who made us burning bright, 
Thank you for your kindness, 
I’ll sleep happily tonight. 
 
Carter: For Jack, Third World Traveler and Camouflaged Tiger
Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 2010
1286 VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 44 
I once read this poem aloud to Jack.  It made him roar, not like a 
tiger, but with great laughter.  I hope you too are joining in his laughter, 
echoing the roar of my friend, the “camouflaged tiger.” 
Valparaiso University Law Review, Vol. 44, No. 4 [2010], Art. 15
https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol44/iss4/15


For Jack, Third World Traveler and Camouflaged Tiger

Valparaiso University

Valparaiso University Law Review Volume 44 Number 4 Symposium on The Civil Rights of Public School Students pp.1283-1286 Symposium on The Civil Rights of Public School Students For Jack, Third World Traveler and Camouflaged Tiger Derrick Augustus Carter Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr  Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Derrick Augustus Carter, For Jack, Third World Traveler and Camouflaged Tiger, 44 Val. U. L. Rev. 1283 (2010). Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol44/iss4/15 This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the Valparaiso University Law School at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Valparaiso University Law Review by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu.  1283 FOR JACK, THIRD WORLD TRAVELER AND CAMOUFLAGED TIGER Derrick Augustus Carter* As Jack Hiller neared death last fall, his mind was clear, sharp, alert, and aware.  During his waning days, his concerns were for others.  For example, he feared for his troubled housekeeper; his last message to me from the hospital was short and to the point—“Help her!”  When he died last Thanksgiving, he left instructions that he wanted no fanfare, no service, no funeral, and no memorial.  We have respected his wishes. But we have our own obligations, and they include the duty to recall with gratitude many things he did for us. I was one of Jack’s students, colleagues, and friends.  And I am a 2010 winner of the Jack Hiller Distinguished Faculty Award for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.  It’s extremely touching to receive an award named for someone I’ve known and admired throughout most of my life.  Jack had a friendly, understated, approachable personality.  He could read people and often met future friends from simply traveling along the road. Jack managed to combine seeming opposites into a way of living.  He was a local community guy with an international flair.  He was a quiet revolutionary, encouraging rather demanding change by showing us the benefits of collaboration, adventure, travel, and scholarship that is ready to examine life in all dimensions.  “The unexamined life,” Jack was fond of quoting Socrates, “is not worth living.” Jack Hiller loved the law and he loved the arts.  He and Professor Dick Brauer wedded art and law with a series of wonderful exhibits in the atrium of the law school.  Jack had many other loves and friends.  Many are gone, many remain.  He cared attentively for his mother, who died at the age of 100.  He left his home and other forms of property principally to his nephew.  He left a huge moral legacy to his friends here in Valparaiso and throughout the world. I am especially intrigued by the legacy of his awareness of the wide world around us.  The principal manifestation of this gift of Jack’s is an immense project he undertook with our colleagues Paul Brietzke and Mary Persyn (and later, with Professor Penny Andrews of the CUNY Law School, with too brief a stop at Valparaiso, as Guest Editor of two issues of the journal), in editing and publishing the Third World Legal Studies Journal from 1985 to 2003.  In this period Hiller, Brietzke, Persyn, and Andrews solicited and edited hundreds of articles on the state of international affairs.                                                  *  Professor of Law, Valparaiso University School of Law. Carter: For Jack, Third World Traveler and Camouflaged TigerProduced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 20101284 VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 44 To appreciate the awesome grandeur of this endeavor, I invite you to sample past issues of this journal.  You will find in these pages world-class scholarship on the great issues of the day:  Developing Legal Resources with the Third World Poor, Realizing the Rights of Women, Police Forces and Human Rights, Reparations, Constitutional Reconstruction, Post-colonial Bills of Rights, Industrial Accidents, Pollution, Governance of Internal Security Forces, Teaching Law and Development, and a Middle Eastern versus Western view of Human Rights.  The journal also reviewed the political and military turmoil in many countries, describing with painstaking detail mass killings, abuses, systematic rapes, female circumcision, genital surgery, and brutal beatings for female adultery. The authors came from Harvard, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Indiana, University of Nairobi, Ghana, Ethiopia, Australia, Canada, Nigeria, Indonesia, Tanzania, India, New Guinea, Philippines, Cambodia, Peru, Australia, England, Khartoum, and France.  These authors included professors, government officials, and scholars at think-tanks all over the world.  They contributed incisive portrayals of the conditions of life in the Third World and decisive recommendations of practical steps needed to address a situation that is perilous for all of us when so many of us lack even the barest necessities for survival, let alone for well-being and the fullness of human dignity. Jack came to these points of view through years of experience in Africa and Asia.  He taught at University College, Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) and at the University of Nairobi (Kenya).  He was also a Fulbright Professor in Malaysia. It is unsurprising that the founding editor of the Third World Legal Studies Journal contributed the lead article in the journal’s first issue in 1985.  Jack’s article is entitled “Lawyers, Alternative Lawyers, and Alternatives to Lawyers:  Of Thomas Hobbes and Rumplestiltskin.”  In the well-known story that Jack invokes, a young girl claims she could change straw to gold.  A wizard rescues her from her failed attempts, then demands her first-born child unless she can guess the wizard’s secret name.  With help, she finally guesses his name, Rumplestiltskin. Jack underscores the moral of the story:  “if you can name something, can put a label on it, then you have power over it, or, at least, it has no power over you.”  In this piece, Jack attempts to redefine the duties of lawyers and non-lawyers as social and legal activists.  In order to encourage “alternative lawyers and alternatives to lawyers,” Jack wrote, we academics must “encourage the necessary developments in professional socialization and legal education in order to produce a new Valparaiso University Law Review, Vol. 44, No. 4 [2010], Art. 15https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol44/iss4/152010] Camouflaged Tiger 1285 breed of lawyers, para-people, one might say, interested in law reform and public service.” From Valparaiso to Africa, to Europe, to Asia, and all points in between, Jack was there.  If I had to label Jack, per Rumplestiltskin, I’d call him a “camouflaged tiger.”  I recall a poem by Solomon Solomon. Dear God who cares for tigers, I have much to thank you for. My stripes and leafy jungle home, My throaty purr, my roar.  I thank you for the blazing sun, And for the cooling shower, And for the tasty hunter I’m preparing to devour.  Dear God you have been generous To send this meaty one, Encumbered by nearsightedness And by a faulty gun.  Oh, he was easy prey to stalk! A most unequal match! I leapt on him with claws unsheathed And slew with quick dispatch.  So now he lies before me With dim, unseeing eyes, His face bedecked with nothing But a look of slight surprise.  And do I feel remorse’s pull? No. Not one guilty tug. It’s better he should be my lunch Than I should be his rug.  So, God who cares for tigers And who made us burning bright, Thank you for your kindness, I’ll sleep happily tonight.  Carter: For Jack, Third World Traveler and Camouflaged TigerProduced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 20101286 VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 44 I once read this poem aloud to Jack.  It made him roar, not like a tiger, but with great laughter.  I hope you too are joining in his laughter, echoing the roar of my friend, the “camouflaged tiger.” Valparaiso University Law Review, Vol. 44, No. 4 [2010], Art. 15https://scholar.valpo.edu/vulr/vol44/iss4/15

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For Jack, Third World Traveler and Camouflaged Tiger

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