By one measure, the death last summer of Justice John Paul Stevens means that the current term of the U.S. Supreme Court is the first in almost 44 years that is missing his living connection to the court and its vital work.

Stevens was appointed to the court in 1975. He retired from active service in 2010 at age 90. But even in senior status, he was a visible giant of the law. He continued to speak and to write, producing multiple books and articles. He remained deeply relevant to what the Supreme Court is in the U.S. government, in law and public service, and to people in the U.S. and globally.

By another measure, Stevens was part of the Supreme Court's life and greatness for a much longer period: 72 years. Stevens first came to the court in 1947, when Justice Wiley Rutledge hired him to serve as one of two law clerks. Stevens, in other words, was a living connection to the Supreme Court of Chief Justice Fred Vinson and Associate Justices Hugo L. Black, Stanley Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Frank Murphy, Robert H. Jackson, Wiley Rutledge and Harold H. Burton.

During that 1947-48 year, Stevens was one of 15 Supreme Court law clerks. The roster includes many names that may be familiar to people who know American law, legal academia and history since World War II:

  • Vinson's three clerks were Francis A. Allen, Lawrence F. Ebb and John R. Thompson.
  • Black's clerk was William Joslin.
  • Reed's clerks were John B. Spitzer and Robert B. von Mehren.
  • Frankfurter's clerks were Irving J. Helman and Albert J. Rosenthal.
  • Douglas's clerk was Stanley E. Sparrowe.
  • Murphy's clerk was Eugene Gressman.
  •  Jackson's clerk was James M. Marsh.
  • Rutledge's clerks were Stanley L. Temko and  Stevens.
  • Burton's clerks were Bruce K. Griswold and James Lake.

Many of these men—yes, in the rigged world of that time, they all were men—went on to great careers as practicing lawyers, law professors and businessmen. I had the good fortune to know, to varying degrees, seven of them in their later years. Jackson's law clerk Marsh, a Philadelphia lawyer, was a dear friend. Frankfurter law clerk Rosenthal, as a Columbia Law School professor emeritus and former CLS dean, was my faculty colleague at St. John's and a model of brilliance, class and kindness. I knew and learned a lot from law professors Frank Allen and Gene Gressman and from attorneys Stan Temko and Robert von Mehren. AndStevens was very generous is sharing his recollections of Rutledge, Jackson, the Vinson Court and some of its 1947-48 cases.

Many of these men lived happy and long lives. Stevens, reaching age 99 last spring, was the last of them. Now they are memories and examples to study and teach.

John Q. Barrett, professor of law at St. John's University, is an Elizabeth S. Lenna fellow at the Robert H. Jackson Center.