ROANOKE BAR ASSOCIATION

MEMORIAL RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, on January 16, 2002, the Roanoke Bar Association was deeply saddened by the senseless act of violence which wounded three students and took the lives of Dean L. Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell and Angela Dales on the campus of the Appalachian School of Law;

WHEREAS, Dean L. Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas Blackwell were men of distinction in the most honored tradition of Virginia lawyers. They sacrificed personal gain and opportunities for more prominent legal accomplishments for the higher calling of the establishment of a law school for the legal education and advancement of students from southwestern Virginia and beyond the Commonwealth. Their commitment to the Appalachian School of Law was surpassed only by their commitment to its students, its staff, their families and the community the school served;

WHEREAS, Angela Dales, the law student who was killed, was emblematic of the school's mission of expanding the opportunities for a legal education, whose fierce determination and positive work ethic brought her from the Admissions Office where she worked for two years prior to entering law school, to the position of an aspiring member of a noble profession;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Directors of the Roanoke Bar Association on this 12th day of March 2002 adopts this Resolution as a record of our heartfelt sympathy for the families of those so tragically taken and as an expression of our respect and esteem for the vital contributions made to the advancement of our profession by Dean L. Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell and Angela Dales; that their dedication, sacrifice and commitment will not have been in vain but serve as a clarion call to personally commit ourselves to the task of leaving the world better than we found it; that this Resolution be duly recorded in the Records of the Association and that a copy be presented to the Appalachian School of Law.

Douglas W. Densmore
President
Roanoke Bar Association