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.