10/30/00--Dean John H. Garvey has announced the selection of Sanford Katz for the Law School's first chair, given by Darald and Juliet Libby in honor of Michael G. Pierce, S.J.

"This is a great honor, and it is fitting that it will go to someone of Sanford's distinction," Dean Garvey said. "He has served the Law School with warmth and energy for more than three decades. He has won international acclaim for his work in family law. He embodies in many ways the qualities that the Libbys wished to celebrate, and that we at Boston College prize."

Sanford Katz is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and was a Sterling Fellow at Yale Law School. He has taught at Boston College Law School since 1968. He has been a visiting fellow at All Souls and Pembroke Colleges at Oxford, and is an elected life member at Clare Hall, Cambridge. He has served as Chair of the ABA Family Law Section, and as President of the International Society of Family Law. For more than a decade he was editor-in-chief of the Family Law Quarterly. More recently he has been an editor of the Journal of Legal Education and of Oxford University PressÕs International Journal of Law and the Family.

Professor Katz is the author or co-author of 13 books, among them: WHEN PARENTS FAIL (Beacon Press 1971), CASES AND MATERIALS ON FAMILY LAW (West Publishing 1994), and the forthcoming CROSS CURRENTS: FAMILY LAW AND POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND (Oxford University Press 2000). He has written dozens of articles, including: Marriage as Partnership, 73 Notre Dame L. Rev. 101 (1998); Foster Parents Versus Agencies, 65 Mich. L. Rev. 145 (1966); and Judicial and Statutory Trends in the Law of Adoption, 51 Georgetown L.J. 62 (1962). Professor Katz's writings have not been limited to academic contributions. He is the chief drafter of the Model Act to Free Children for Permanent Placement, and of the Model State Subsidized Adoption Act and Regulation Ð both projects funded by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. He was the director of a decade-long research project on Law and Child Development funded by the Field Foundation, the Grant Foundation, and HEW.

The Libby Chair in Memory of Michael G. Pierce, S.J.

As a top executive at David Clark, Darald Libby helped develop the company, once known primarily for manufacturing girdles, into a multi-million dollar enterprise. The firm gained notoriety in the early 1960s for designing the suits worn by astronauts such as John Glenn, Ed White, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. David Clark Co. now produces specialized communications systems and devices as well as protective equipment for aerospace and emergency medicine.

Libby retired from the company in 1989 but continues to serve as chairman of the board.

Juliet Libby, who as a girl kept the books for her father's coal and heating oil business, went on to become a certified public accountant. After marrying Darald in 1946, she devoted her financial skills as a volunteer in various church and social groups. She taught catechism classes at St. Paul's Parish in Worcester, organized children's programs and studied art and calligraphy.

The Libbys named the Law School's first endowed chair in honor of their friend, Fr. Pierce, who they befriended through the retreats he conducted at Campion Hall in Weston. The friendship continued when Fr. Pierce moved to the Jesuit Mission Bureau in Boston. Fr. Pierce died in March of 1998.

"We wanted to find some way to honor him," said Darald Libby, interviewed after announcing the gift. "He had a great sense of humor. He was always doing something for others."

"We've done very well, better than we ever deserved," said Juliet Libby. "God has been good to us and we feel we have to share, to pass it on. In this world, some people try to amass a fortune. We like to give it away and have the pleasure of doing it while we're alive."