Geoffrey Stone Remembers Hugo Sonnenschein

Prof. Geoffrey Stone’s remarks at April 30 memorial for Hugo Sonnenschein

Editor’s note: These are the full remarks delivered by Prof. Geoffrey Stone during a memorial for the late Hugo Sonnenschein on April 30, 2022, at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel. Read more about the memorial here.

In 1973, I joined the faculty of the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of law. Thus, by 1993, when Hugo Sonnenschein arrived as our new president, I had been a member of the faculty for 20 years, and for the six years immediately preceding Hugo’s arrival, because of the wisdom of President Hanna Gray, I had the privilege of serving as dean of our Law School.

By that time, I bled maroon, and I was deeply steeped in the romantic mythology of the University of Chicago, an institution that is unique in its celebration of its own character and values. The University’s mythology is captured by such familiar phrases as: the life of the mind; the University; a place where the air is electric with ideas; where students are taught not facts, theories or laws, but how to think; and where the proper response to even the most withering question is not resentment, but gratitude.

Read more at University News Office