REMEMBERING
MARY EMERY

Reflections on “The Real Dean”

Since 2003, I have enjoyed working FOR Mary. Many, correctly, referred to Mary Emery ’63 as “the real dean,” and while I got to do the speeches and lead the meetings, everyone knew that Mary was the one who got things done here. No one I know cared more about the law school than she did and few knew the law school as well as she did. During her nearly five decades of service to this law school, her contributions are innumerable.

One of Mary’s proudest accomplishments was her role in skillfully negotiating a funding arrangement between the law school and the University that, after approval by President Locatelli, ended periods of disagreement and division. Mary witnessed the effects of her work—tremendous growth and prosperity of the law school and greater cooperation between the schools.

Perhaps the second greatest contribution that Mary gave the school was the transformation of our student body and the composition of the law school’s faculty and staff into a major and contemporary American law school. Mary, together with my predecessors George Alexander and Jerry Uelmen, was a major agent for this significant change in what our law school looks like—diverse, inclusive, with engaged and passionate men and women training to be lawyers. She was a champion of greater opportunities for women and people of color in the profession and through her work at Santa Clara Law, she was able to lead that change. Our law school and the legal profession are better for it. Her classmate, Leon Panetta, commented that Mary “devoted her life to helping students become good lawyers and, more importantly, good citizens. Mary Emery and Santa Clara Law School will always be one—now and forever.”

Mary’s last major project at the law school was working with Jerry Smith on a sculpture that Jerry created depicting the history of the law school. He was the artist and she was his muse. I will think of Mary every time I see that sculpture.

Cultural knowledge is one of the benefits of studying in Asia. Students also learn the basics of substantive law and legal systems, international law and IP law, and get a taste for working in a law firm or corporation that does business in Asia. Jimenez believes experience in Asian cultures can also change a student’s way of thinking, giving them a broader perspective on the world.

Mary’s selfless service to many organizations and volunteer boards and political organizations was legendary, including the Legal Aid Society, Bill Wilson Center, Santa Clara County government, and others. Mary would have made a wonderful Jesuit—she believed that our fundamental mission was to serve others, that God was in all things, and that, in the words of Richard Foster, “each activity of daily life in which we stretch ourselves on behalf of others is a prayer in action.”

Mary was a lifelong Democrat who felt it was our destiny to redistribute our wealth to the less fortunate, yet she counted among her numerous friends rock-ribbed Republicans such as BT Collins, who once showed up in her office with a Bush-Quayle sticker plastered on his “hook,” his prosthesis. Now, there was a relationship, a friendship for the century! She also enjoyed talking about and telling stories about her law school friends (nearly all of whom were men since there were few women in her class), including Gene Premo, whom she had known and with whom she had been best friends since elementary school.

Mary was a lifelong Catholic who was as deeply spiritual about her faith as she was practical about the need of the Church to serve and care for the religious needs of women, the poor, gays and lesbians and others. Mary was a “big tent” person—always believing that our institutions—be they the church or the law school—must reach out to serve and nurture those in our communities and society who need it most.

Mary liked beautiful things, the theater, and shopping for clothes and jewelry. She commented to several friends that she aspired to be the oldest woman alive to wear leather pants. Some of her greatest pleasures were her trips to New York with great friends like Cynthia Mertens and Jennifer Konecny that included six or seven plays in a row, her global gallivanting trips with Tom and Karen Breen, including a trip to London and Oxford just a couple of weeks ago, and her international shopping trips to London and Italy with her niece, Sarah Birmingham. And, the hours she and Bob Peterson spent closeted in a small office reading applicant files and building the next year’s class, and the close friendship with Allison Heish and Mary Zimmerman, sharing a glass of wine and pleasant conversation. These were her best of times.

Deep and sustaining friendships enmeshed with the things she loved to do—these were the elixir of Mary’s life, sustaining her through the loss of her most loved partner, John, and several family members and close friends. Mary made friends for life, and hers was a deep and nurturing friendship. If you were her friend, you could count on her for anything at any time.

We will remember, and will miss, that wicked smile, that cackle that let you know that she loved you and your sense of humor, those beautiful eyes peering over her fashionable eyewear, letting you know that she saw into your heart and liked what she saw. We are blessed to have drunk deeply from the seemingly bottomless pool of love that was Mary Emery.

Note: This is an edited version of the eulogy given by Don Polden at the memorial service held for Mary Emery at Mission Santa Clara on August 12, 2011. For a link to the online memorial, which includes the full text of his talk, visit law.scu.edu/memoriam.cfm.

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