Richard Lewis Roe – 50th Reunion Essay

Richard Lewis Roe

12529 Montclair Drive

Silver Spring, MD 20904

rickroe01@gmail.com

301-802-0518

Spouse(s): Dianne M. Piche (1984)

Child(ren): Daniel Roe (1986); Timothy Roe (1989), Christopher Roe (1992)

Education: University of Maine School of Law, JD, 1977

Career: Georgetown University Law Center, 1983 to present, Professor of Law and Director, Street Law

College: Silliman

My Yale experience established the foundations for lifelong learning, questioning myself and the world around me, service, an entrepreneurial attitude, commitment to justice, and a career in teaching and learning in law.

I was a naïve workstudy freshman in the class of 1968, faithfully attending classes when my real education began one lunch when I sat with a classmate I never saw before or since. When I responded to a question with the conventional explanation of the times, he asked, “Why do you say that?” I answered, “That’s what people say.” He replied, “That’s not good enough.” I knew he was right. So began my commitment to a sort of Taoist respect authority/question authority attitude that helped me blend conventional with unconventional paths.

I played the obligatory football as a freshman and sophomore but soon explored new ground. I majored in Latin American studies because one subject seemed too confining. Watching Luis Buñuel films taught me about metaphors. Tutoring in the New Haven projects my freshman summer spawned a commitment to service of the disadvantaged. In a year abroad in Bogotá, Colombia, I studied Spanish, taught fourth grade in a “colegio” and traveled around Latin America for three months for $350, exploring the world with more objective eyes, returning to join the Class of 1969. I became a partner in the Yale Ski Club lodge by lending my summer savings for spring tuition to Class of ’68 friends who rented an old farmhouse. My senior year, friends and I leased a Vermont inn, added members from women’s schools, and spent every winter weekend there. Looking back, this was all preparation.

After graduation, I taught junior high science before bringing my two younger brothers from New Jersey to California, the promised land. While living a counter-culture life I sold insurance and worked in a hospital before taking the LSAT. After a year in Philadelphia teaching adult basic education, I attended law school in Maine. I still had no idea what to do with my life.

A New York Times ad brought me to Georgetown University Law Center’s Street Law program, where law students teach in high schools and prisons about law affecting their lives. I knew at once this was my calling. I wrote grants to support the program until a teaching position opened. Soon I became professor and director. I’ve pioneered teaching through interactive methods that make the law come alive. Students learn about law and rights as they experience fairness and justice in the classroom. I’ve helped start Street Law programs and teach experiential learning around the globe. In the process, I’ve helped create a charter high school for underserved youth and taught prisoners the value of reading with their children. In my Literacy and Law seminar, my law students read with emergent readers and have written over 250 children’s books. Although I love my work and thrive in it, I’m retiring in June.

What else is important? My marriage to Dianne Piché and three wonderful sons are joys. I plan to continue teaching and conducting trainings in interactive methodology in the US and abroad with a focus on early childhood, multiplying the value of the learning and friendships I gained from Yale.