Thursday, September 13, 2012
Page 3
Hastings College of the Law Mourns Libyan Ambassador
From Staff and Wire Service Reports
Faculty and staff at the Bay Area law school where the U.S. ambassador to Libya earned his degree yesterday mourned the loss of one of their prized students.
U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, 52, three other American diplomats and several Libyan security officers were killed in a rocket grenade and gunfire attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Prof. David Levine says Stevens knew he wanted to join the foreign service when he was a student at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in the late 1980s. Stevens graduated in the school’s class of 1989. He was listed as inactive with the California State Bar.
Levine remembered Stevens as a bright student who spoke up in class and was well-liked.
The school issued a statement yesterday saying that as a public servant, Stevens was performing the highest role a lawyer is called upon to perform.
In an official statement, Hastings College Chancellor Frank H. Wu said,
“On behalf of the faculty and staff of University of California Hastings College of the Law, I express sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens. The Ambassador was performing the highest role that a lawyer is called upon to perform: public service.”
The statement continued:
“He and I communicated when he was appointed ambassador. He had been looking forward to sharing his experiences with students when he returned. This is a tragedy. We mourn this loss.”
“It’s especially tragic that Chris Stevens died in Benghazi because it is a city that he helped to save,” President Barack Obama said from the White House Rose Garden yesterday. “With characteristic skill, courage and resolve he built partnerships with Libyan revolutionaries and helped them as they planned to build a new Libya.”
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Stevens a “wonderful officer and a terrific diplomat who was dedicated to the cause of freedom.”
“His service in the Middle East throughout his career was legendary,” she said.
In his own memorial statement, Gov. Jerry Brown said:
“His dedicated service to our country and our world will never be forgotten.”
Copyright 2012, Metropolitan News Company