By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- In the hyper-modern, airy Star Commons atrium of the Duke University School of Law, law professor emeritus Clark Havighurst recalled what had been the old Duke law school.

It was a much smaller, less imposing facility, now all but submerged by the imposing edifice the law school has become, Havinghurst said. Robinson Everett, who taught at the law school for more than 51 years before his death last June, was a link to that past.

It was a past that "wasn't always distinguished, but always was important," Havinghurst said. His colleague's passing, at the age of 81, "severed so many links," Havinghurst told several hundred people gathered Thursday for a memorial service for Everett. "More than anybody else, he connected the law school to its past, and to Durham, to this community."

The memorial celebration brought together colleagues, students, friends and family of Everett, a native of Durham, who became a nationally prominent scholar and judge but remained rooted in his hometown. The speakers at the ceremony all spoke of Everett's outstanding legal accomplishments -- at the age of 22, he became the youngest person ever to teach at Duke law and he served on the U.S. Court of Military Appeals for 12 years, 10 as chief judge, among other achievements.

But they tended to focus instead on the generous, caring man behind the accomplishments, humble in the face of all he achieved.

"He was extraordinarily generous," law school Prof. Madeline Morris said. "He was also very unassuming, a very wonderful, astute and caring person."

William Reppy, another professor at the school, recalled an old song when he spoke of the man most of his colleagues called "Robby."

"The song was 'A Good Man is Hard to Find,'" Reppy said. "And Robby was good in so many, many ways."

Reppy recalled that Everett was a good Duke sports fan, too. "But it's easy to be a Duke basketball fan, cheering at Cameron Indoor Stadium," he pointed out. "Football is quite a different story. But Robby was always there at Wallace Wade Stadium, and I can still hear him shouting, 'Go Duke, Go Devils.'"

James Markham, one of Everett's students who now teaches at UNC Chapel Hill, said he was honored to speak at the ceremony. But, he noted, "there are hundreds, really thousands, of students who could have spoken about how Judge Everett touched their lives."