José A. Cabranes, U.S. Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit, Portrait Dedication [80:01-85:02]

My hunch is that Kate's gesting comments on the 2020 solution were embedded in Dan subconscious as he worked on this project. In any event, I'm grateful to Dan for a portrait that, as you'll see, also captures some relevant Yale architectural landmarks that can be observed from the windows of my twelfth floor chambers, most especially the Yale Law School itself, and that includes subtle illusions to items in my office that are of special significance to our family, including pictures of one or another of them. This is the time for me to thank also my two families, the one defined by blood and the one defined by democratic politics. The first is the family headed by my wife, Kate Stith, Lafayette's foster professor of law at Yale, who has made possible anything good that has happened to me since we met in 1983, and whose can-do Midwestern temperament is matched by her intelligence and her consideration for others. This family includes also my children, Jennifer, Amy, Alejo, and Ben, and Jennifer's husband, my son-in-law, Roberto Braceras, who's also a graduate of the Yale Law School and therefore children. I want to thank also my court family, the official family I gained by virtue of my appointment to the Federal Judiciary. This family includes friends of many years, including notably the clerk of the district court, Robin Tabora, who long ago served in my district court chambers as courtroom deputy for nearly 15 years. I thank also Robin's colleagues in the clerk's office, including Maria Carbenter, and Juan de Horkins, who were responsible for organizing this event. As to serving as my court and deputy, Robin went on to positions of increasing responsibility in the federal court system here and in Washington. Happily, she was repatriated to Connecticut by the judges of the district court several years ago to serve as clerk of court. In recalling my years on the district court, I want to record my thanks also to two other indispensable members of our court team. My assistant for over 20 years at Yale in the district court and for some years in the Court of Appeals, Lillian Oliyarsik, a wonderful Mrs. O, who is here with us today. And to one of the truly accomplished official court reporters in the land, the incomparable Paul Collard, Paul I know Mrs. those 9 p.m. sessions of court. And I cannot overstate the special debt of gratitude that I owe to my judicial assistant throughout my Court of Appeals years, Janet Hanson, a visit of office management, and a woman of extraordinary intelligence, competence, patience, and discretion. It was an honor to serve on this district court. It is the first federal trial court established by the new American Republic following adoption of the Constitution. As you have read on our program and heard from others today, it was in this very location at another ceremonial session of the district court that I took the oath of office in 1979 from my patron Abraham Rybukov. Senator Rybukov had a role in the appointment of every federal judge appointed in Connecticut between 1963 and 1981, including some who sit on the district court bench today. In my case, as in that of some others, Senator Rybukov's recommendation to the president was the result of the sympathetic interest of the judge who seat on the district court I was called to occupy John O. Newman. From the day 1979, the John Newman and I discussed the possibility of my becoming a district judge, he has been a mentor and inspiration and an exemplar of public service. Another mentor and model ever so different from John Newman in personality and in political origins but equally my good friend and confidant is Ralph Winter, who came to the court of appeals a couple of years after I had begun my service in the district court. I was privileged to be on the bench when he was sworn in at this very spot by Justice Thurgood Marshall. Ralph had been Marshall's first law clerk and favorite law clerk. I had known Ralph only slightly in my student years at Yale Law School. He was then a junior member of the faculty and I observed him provide a raucous, even rollicking commentary on national affairs from his headquarters in the student lounge. What then we call the Coke Room. My clerks told me that I'd have to explain that that was reference to Coca-Cola. I encountered Ralph again in different circumstances when I became Yale's general counsel. He would