Class Notes, Jan-Feb 2026

From the class website: “Our classmate, Myron Thompson, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, was recently feted with a dinner in his honor in the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court of the United States.  Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor and the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation hosted the dinner.

The purpose of the dinner was to honor Myron for a long and distinguished career that, as retired Justice Anthony Kennedy commented, has been in service to the words above the entrance to the Supreme Court Building: “Equal Justice Under the Law.”

Before the dinner, Myron had no less of an honor when he spoke to the Maryland State Appellate Court Bench, where he met Cal Ripken, Jr., the husband of Judge Laura Ripken, who serves on the 5th Appellate Circuit in Maryland.

Myron’s career has been marked by singular achievements.  After graduating from Yale Law School in 1972, he returned to Alabama and became the first Black Assistant Attorney General in state history.  Indeed, he was the first Black state employee other than a teacher or a janitor.

After a stint in private practice, he was appointed to the federal bench by President Jimmy Carter, moving into the seat previously occupied by Judge Frank Johnson.  Over the years, Myron has been a powerful advocate for civil rights and equality, issuing landmark rulings on desegregation, prison reform, voting rights, and women’s health.

Beyond the bench, he worked to preserve the Montgomery Greyhound bus station, where Freedom Riders were once attacked, transforming it into the Freedom Rides Museum, a site of reflection and remembrance.  He was also a Founding Director and Board Chair of the Alabama Legal Services Corporation, a precursor to Legal Services Alabama, the only non-profit law firm providing free civil legal assistance to low-income Alabamians and the only LSC-funded program in Alabama.

His rulings have reshaped Alabama’s legal and civic landscape—from desegregation and prison reform to voting rights and women’s health. Beyond the bench, he spearheaded preservation of the Montgomery Greyhound bus station, transforming it into the Freedom Rides Museum. He also co-founded the Alabama Legal Services Corporation, providing critical civil legal assistance to low-income residents.

In September 2022, in celebration of Judge Thompson’s four decades on the bench, former President Jimmy Carter, in a letter, “commended” Judge Thompson for his “enduring commitment to fairness, civil rights, and protecting the rule of law,” and observed that he has “emerged as a national leader in the effort to guarantee that all litigants receive equal justice before the law.”” Well done, Myron!

Sad news from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise:

“William B. Evans died suddenly on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025…Bill graduated from Yale University with a bachelor’s in political science in 1969, where he won the Winthrop Smith Award in lacrosse and was [a standout] in football. He studied art at the L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, France, in 1978 and at the Parsons School of Design in Lake Placid. He taught art at the Munson-Wiliams-Proctor School of Art in Utica. He was the owner and manager of John Street Studio and Gallery from 1978 to 2009.

Bill loved the Adirondack mountains. He climbed the 46 peaks while at Camp Lincoln, and again as an adult, who witnessed the beauty of the seasonal landscapes through the eyes of an artist. Bill’s art won multiple awards and was exhibited in numerous solo and group shows. Working in multiple media, he created abstract and representational pieces.

Bill was the most delightful paradox. A strong and athletic sportsman, and a man whom no one can describe without using the word “gentle.” He craved time alone in the mountains as well as spending time in New York City, where he lived in the early ’70s. Serious and intellectual, yet always alive with a boyish sense of wonder. He never ceased to lose inspiration, and never made an easy decision.

A curator of family tales and legends, Bill was a historian and archivist who chronicled his family’s storied past. Bill’s maternal grandparents, the Brewsters, were early descendants of Lake Placid. His grandfather, O. Byron Brewster, served as a state supreme court justice on the New York Appellate Court.

Bill loved his family and stayed in touch with them all, including cousins near and far.

We will feel him in all the art he left behind for the world, and endeavor to carry on his legacy of caring for the environment and for one another.