1/31/03-Boston College Law School professor Ruth Arlene-Howe was honored for her contributions to the profession and the Law School community at a portrait unveiling ceremony and reception held on Thursday, January 30 on the Law School campus.

The reception, sponsored by the Office of Affirmative Action in collaboration with the Council of Black Faculty, celebrated Professor Howe’s brilliant career as a legal scholar, and honored her as the first and only African-American woman faculty member to achieve tenure and the rank of full professor in the history of the Boston College Law School.

"Professor Howe has contributed immensely to the success of this school," said BC Law Dean John H. Garvey. "We are particularly proud that she is also a graduate of Boston College Law School. She represents the best that we have to offer."

Professor Howe received a Bachelor's degree from Wellesley College, Masters in Social Work degree from Simmons College and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Boston College Law School.

Building on graduate social work training at Simmons College in the mid-1950s, life experience as a daughter, wife, mother, community activist in the 1960s, and legal studies at Boston College Law School in the 1970s, her major career commitment has been to further the "best interests" of children, especially Black youth. Professor Howe, a tenured faculty member of BC Law faculty since 1981, teaches a variety of basic and upper level courses and seminars in family and elder law as well as Legal Interviewing and Counseling and Introduction to Lawyering and Professional Responsibility. She is advisor to the Black Law Student Association and Third World Law Journal, and treasurer of the BC Law Student Alumni Network since its founding in 1985.

Professor Ruth-Arlene W. Howe is the recipient of numerous distinguished awards and honors, including a listing in the 2000 Outstanding Scholars of the 21st Century; recipient of the Dunlop Smith Fellowship in Law and Social Public Policy from Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College; one of the 34 scholars honored on March 24, 1993 at the University of Massachusetts's "Celebration of Black Scholarship in New England Dinner."; recipient of BC Law Black Law Student Association Distinguished Faculty Plaque, March 1991 and April 1997; honored by the Museum of African American History as "having made a difference" and featured in Lou Jones's photographic exhibit "Sojourner's Daughters" in April 1991; recipient of BC Law Alumni Association Special Alumni Service Award, 1996; recipient of BC Law Black Law Student Association Special Appreciation for Distinguished Service Plaque, April 2000; recipient of
BC Law Black Law Student Association Special Plaque of Appreciation, April 2001 and others.

Author of articles, co-author and contributor to books on family law and child welfare; a past chair of the American Bar Association's Section on Family Law Adoption Committee (early 1980s); a member of the editorial board of the ABA Section on Family Law Family Advocate (1989-1995 & 2001-); reporter for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws drafting committee of the Uniform Putative and Unknown Fathers Act; appointee to various Massachusetts gubernatorial and judicial commissions and advisory groups concerned broadly with the
unmet legal needs of children, she served as a member of the Study Group on Intercountry Adoption that advised the United States Department's Office of Legal Adviser for Private International Law regarding development of the Hague Conference Convention on Intercountry Adoption.

A past board director of the North American Council on Adoptable Children, and current member of the Ethics Advisory Committee of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, Professor Howe was a member of the Board of Advisors for the 2002 PBS television film Outside Looking In: Transracial Adoption in America.

Professor Ruth-Arlene W. Howe is currently engaged in a research project entitled "African Americans at Boston College Law School: An Oral History" that will chronicle the qualitative presence and experiences of African Americans at Boston College Law School.