Henry Span was my housemate at 54 Home Ave during our senior year (along with Claude Szyfer, Jimmy Esquea, and Dave Hernandez). All of them majored in social sciences and I think I am the only one in the house that didn't end up a lawyer. I wasn't in contact with any of them after graduation. I ended up with this group because Claude was my frosh year roommate, and he and Henry both were part of a successful intramural soccer dynasty - midfielders on a team I was goalkeeper for. Today, my first notice of Henry's January passing came in the form of an email from the Alumni Relations Office that a Memorial for him has been added to the schedule for the 15th Reunion coming this May 20th weekend. Henry is the third member of the class of '90 who I was close to and has passed away.
J Peter (JP) Adler lived down the hall from Claude and I in "Gingerbread House" our freshman year. I last saw him at a corned beef and cabbage party celebrating St. Patrick's Day, just after I'd moved to Massachusetts to work for FTP Software. JP died later in the spring of 1995 in a collision with a truck while driving home to New York from Texas on the very afternoon he completed his graduate studies. His email announcing the completion and indicating his plans for the next two weeks (including seeing us all at the reunion) wasn't downloaded to my machine until several hours after the accident. His service was a week before our fifth reunion in 1995.
Steve Cohen lived in C1 LowRise, next door to me sophomore year. The Super Bowl party was at his place - in the hot tub they build from scrap wood and heavy plastic and duct tape. Several of that C1 population went on to live with me in B7 the following year, while Steve and George Bevis (my Best Man at wedding #1) got a place off-campus, so they could keep Kinneson, Steve's wonderful big black dog. George phoned me after I'd moved back to Oregon ('98? '99? I only remember that it was after I'd moved to my current home) to tell me Steve died in the ocean currents off Central America when he went in to save Kinneson, who'd fallen from a seaside path and into the waves. Kinneson survived and was rescued by a boat.All too early.
The remainder of this post is taken intact from the George Mason School of Law website...
Law School Mourns the Loss of Professor Henry Span
"Henry learned of the illness that took him from us the very same week he began his appointment here at George Mason. Though he knew of its gravity almost at once, he remained an outstanding colleague and teacher throughout the painful course of treatment. His students praised him for his clarity and thorough mastery of Property and Environmental Law -- subjects that he had never taught before but that his capacious mind allowed him quickly to grasp. To his colleagues, he was a treasure. He came to our many workshops with a tough, skeptical mind, yet he was always civil and often funny. Until last fall when matters took a turn for the worse, he never allowed his health situation to slow him down. He was, in fact, the most feared racquetball player on our faculty.
When he left us last fall to return to his family, Henry was painfully missed, and we miss him still. Our hearts go out to his parents, sister and family. "
Comments from: Dan Polsby, Acting Dean and Foundation Professor of Law
Henry Span was born in 1968, and he was a graduate of Yale Law School where he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal and the Yale Law & Policy Review, in addition to being named an Olin Fellow. He also held a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Henry Span served as law clerk to Justice Virginia Long of the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Services for Henry Span were conducted on Monday, January 31st in Westfield, New Jersey. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory can be made to Wesleyan University, 318 High St., Middletown, Conn. 06459.
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