4/23/01--Sanford Katz presented the inaugural Libby Lecture before a packed house at BCLS on April 23 in the East Wing. The lecture, titled "Marriage and Friendship: Partners on Life's Journey," was preceded by remarks from Boston College President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., BCLS Dean John H. Garvey, and Darald Libby.

"Sanford Katz has served the Law School with warmth and energy for more than three decades," BCLS Dean John Garvey said upon Professor Katz's selection to hold the Law School's first endowed chair. "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."

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

The Boston College Law School’s first endowed chair was established through a $1.5 million gift by Darald Libby, JD ‘55, and his wife Juliet, and honors the New Hampshire couple’s late friend and mentor Rev. Michael G. Pierce, S.J., of the Jesuit Mission Bureau in Boston.

Darald Libby helped develop the David Clark Company, which 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. His wife, Juliet Libby, has devoted her skills as a trained accountant in volunteering for various church groups and children’s welfare programs. The Libbys named the chair in honor of their friend, Michael G. Pierce, S.J., whom 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, 1998.

Sanford N. Katz: Darald and Juliet Libby Professor

Professor Katz was born and raised in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and received his B.A. degree with Distinction in History from Boston University College of Arts and Sciences and his Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Chicago Law School. He clerked for the Honorable Marvin Jones, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Claims in Washington, D. C. and began his teaching career at The Catholic University of America School of Law. He was the first law school professor to receive a Public Health Fellowship to study Law and the Behavioral Sciences at Yale Law School in 1963.

Professor Katz joined the University of Florida College of Law faculty in 1964 and became a tenured full professor in 1966. He joined the BCLS faculty in 1968. Professor Katz has authored, co-authored or edited fourteen books. He has written forty articles and five monographs. He has served as Chief Reporter for the Model Subsidized Adoption Act and the Model Act to Free Children for Permanent Placement. Professor Katz has contributed to the New Catholic Encyclopedia and was the law consultant to the Fourth Edition of the American Heritage Dictionary (2000). He served as Chairman of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association in 1981, President of the International Society of Family Law in 1982, and Editor-in-Chief of the Family Law Quarterly from 1970-1983. He presently serves as a member of the Board of Editors of the International Journal of Law and the Family (Oxford University Press), on the Advisory Board of the American Bar Association Center on Children and Law in Washington, D. C. and as an International Associate at the Center for the Study of Family Law and Policy at Oxford University.

Professor Katz has received the Distinguished Service Award from the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association in 1982 and the Distinguished Service Award from the International Society of Family Law in 2000. Professor Katz was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University in 1997 and a Visiting Fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford University in 2000. He is married to Joan Raphael Katz, Director of Social Services for the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Massachusetts, and is the father of two sons, Daniel and Andrew.