Feerick, John D.

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Dedication:  A Tribute to a Giant

Fordham University School of Law

Fordham Law Review Volume 71 Issue 3 Article 1 2002 Dedication: A Tribute to a Giant John D. Feerick Fordham University School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr  Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation John D. Feerick, Dedication: A Tribute to a Giant, 71 Fordham L. Rev. 623 (2002). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol71/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Law Review by an authorized editor of FLASH: The Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact tmelnick@law.fordham.edu. SYMPOSIUM: A TRIBUTE TO PROFESSORJOSEPH M. PERILLODEDICATIONA TRIBUTE TO A GIANTJohn D. Feerick"Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest canrepair."Although George Washington did not have a law professor in mindwhen he made his famous utterance, can it be seriously questionedthat Professor Joseph Perillo has met that standard in his professionand at the school to which he has devoted the greater part of his life?He has enjoyed an illustrious career and may he be blessed with agreat many more years of "tilling the soil" in his chosen field, a field inwhich he has matched in productivity and excellence such giants in thelaw as Samuel Williston and Arthur Corbin.Professor Perillo came to Fordham in 1963, after a brief stint in thepractice of law and then a Fulbright scholarship at the University ofFlorence. In a relatively few short years he and his colleague andfriend, John D. Calamari, would team up to produce a nationallyrecognized treatise and case book on the law of contracts. Theirbooks today can be found in every law school classroom and library,and far beyond, helping law students to understand the meaning of a"contract," assisting lawyers in their counseling and advocacy roles,and enabling judges to apply the right principles to difficult factualissues. So many of the School's most prominent graduates creditProfessor Perillo for giving them the thorough grounding in contractswhich kindled their love of the law and their dedication to theprofession. His works have certainly set the standard for "supremeexcellence" as encouraged by our first president.But Professor Perillo's work in the field of contract law is only partof the story. A law professorship carries not only a scholarshipresponsibility but also teaching and service responsibilities-responsibilities which Professor Perillo has discharged in anextraordinary way.As a teacher, whether in a classroom or at another podium,Professor Perillo has never yielded to the human temptation to "wingit" or "recycle," so to speak, his notes from the prior year. As great aFORDHAM LAW REVIEWteacher as he is, he remains a great student, reading every advancesheet and article imaginable to stay current in his field and learn fromthe insights of others and the controversies which are the grist of alawyer's work. In all of his teaching he brings boundless energy andenthusiasm, revealing his passion for the law in its grandest tradition.Professor Perillo's service to his profession and school match hisprodigious scholarship and teaching. First and foremost, he hasenriched his profession by the quality of his path-breakingscholarship. This has not only been expressed in his own books andarticles, too many to mention, but in his undertaking to serve as thegeneral editor of a landmark in the law of contracts. An ordinaryperson would be content enough just to keep his (or her) own workcurrent-but to do so as well for the work of the late Arthur Corbin isof Olympian proportions.As for Fordham Law School, Professor Perillo has given a level ofservice second to no one in the school's entire history. He has taughtnumerous courses, helping deans whenever asked. In 1981-82 heserved as the School's Acting Dean. This is what we said about thatservice at the time:An acting deanship is usually an interregnum, a caretakeradministration. No one expects anything to be done. Joe Perillo didnot behave like an acting dean. Things got done. An innovativeLegal Process course was inserted into the first year curriculum.Plans for renovation and expansion of the Law School buildingproceeded apace. Significant additions were made to the faculty.The law school ran smoothly and well. There were no leftoverproblems when I arrived on July 1-except the ubiquitous (but, onehopes, not eternal) financial challenges.Joe Perillo's one year in office will be recorded in the history of theLaw School as an acting deanship. In the appreciative minds of theFordham Law School community, it will be thought of as the PerilloDeanship.During his almost 40-year career at Fordham, Professor Perillo haschaired or been a member of practically every committee at theschool. He chaired the Appointments Committee for a number ofyears, the self-study committee in connection with an American BarAssociation inspection, and numerous task forces and ad hoccommittees. For me, he was almost always the first I turned to inmoments of urgency and importance. Three particular services standout-his assuming the directorship of the Stein Institute on Law andEthics in 1983 when we had no full time scholar and teacher in thatfield; his taking on the directorship of our law school's first summerprogram abroad and helping make it in its very first year an historicprogram, functioning in both Northern Ireland and the Republic ofIreland; and his acceptance of the moderatorship of the Fordham LawReview until then Professor (now Dean) William Treanor returned[Vol. 71TRIBUTE TO A GIANTfrom his leave of absence to serve in the United States Department ofJustice. In addition, unbeknownst to me, somehow or other ProfessorPerillo managed to find time to twice be the Cubmaster of Pack 9 ofNyack, covering part of the Cub Scout careers of his two sons. All ofthese acts of service, in the last period of years alone when thescholarship demands on him were so enormous, qualify ProfessorPerillo for "sainthood."Not surprisingly when, in 1997, the Law School was asked torecommend someone to be the first occupant of a DistinguishedFordham University Professorship, the School responded with thename of Professor Perillo. He now occupies that professorship at theSchool.Professor Joseph Perillo represents not only the best qualities of thescholar, teacher, and servant of justice but the very best of theFordham tradition. His high ideals, his great personal integrity, andhis concern for others are truly a beacon for all his faculty colleaguesand his students. He is what we call "one in a million."As the citation from his bene merenti medal from FordhamUniversity concluded, I conclude:"Joe has lived up to his family tradition and to the old Italianproverb that states, 'Chi ha tempo non aspetta tempo.' (Literallytranslated, 'He who has time should not wait for time.'-in otherwords, 'Don't put it off-do it now')."I simply add that it is my fervent hope that this seminal year in thelife of Professor Joseph Perillo will be followed by many more yearsof service at Fordham Law School and to the profession we both love.I thank him deeply for his special friendship and for his outstandingcontributions to the law school.2002]Notes & Observations

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Dedication: A Tribute to a Giant

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