UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 8, Page 1
October 24, 1991
University celebrates new building and benefactors

     Noted retired Wilmington attorney S. Samuel Arsht has been
pitching pup tents all of his life. They've just gotten a little
more grand as the years have gone by.
     Arsht made reference to his Boy Scout pup tent pitching fame
after receiving an honorary doctor of laws degree from the
University last Friday in a ceremony held in Arsht Hall, the new
home of the Academy of Lifelong Learning. The building, which was
dedicated later the same morning, is named for Arsht and his wife,
Roxana C. Arsht.
     Mr. Arsht told the large gathering of well-wishers at the
conferral ceremony that the one accomplishment in his life above
all others that merited his new degree happened in 1923 when he was
a 13-year-old Boy Scout. At that time, he said, he was the champion
pup tent pitcher of Delaware and was sent to Washington, D.C., to
compete in the National Pup Tent Pitching Contest.
     With grace and charm, Arsht thanked the University's trustees
for "making me the first champion pup tent pitcher to have a big
beautiful pup tent erected with my name on it and to receive, in
addition, an honorary doctor of laws degree."
     Prior to the awarding of the degree, University President
David P. Roselle welcomed guests and cited Arsht for his
"reputation as one of the truly distinguished corporation lawyers
in the nation's legal community" and called him "a scholar, not
only of the law but of many disciplines.
     "In his second career as a returning adult student, Sam has
continued to distinguish himself by being an avid and dedicated
learner, continuing to share his expertise and broadening his mind
to reaches both revisited and unknown," Roselle said.
     "Those of us who have had the privilege of knowing Sam know
that he has not only reached personal success and happiness but has
shared that success with many throughout his lifetime. We are here
today to celebrate that lifetime of shared success," Roselle
concluded.
     Carol E. Hoffecker, acting associate provost for graduate
studies, shared Arsht's life story with the gathering, noting that
he came from a family that was both large and poor. His father was
a paperhanger who charged $5 per room, no matter what the size.
     Arsht graduated from Wilmington High School in 1927. He had
been active in the school's Latin Club, the dramatic club, the
traffic club, the yearbook and newspaper staffs and the Book and
Quill Club.
     Upon graduation, he attended the Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania where he earned a bachelor's degree.
From there he enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania Law
School. Law school cost $400 a year, and to pay for his education
Arsht taught Hebrew School in the temple at 6th and French Street
on evenings and Sundays and worked in a store and as a waiter in
Philadelphia, she said.
     In spite of all his outside activities, he was first in his
class during his first year of studies and graduated second in his
class.
     In those days, law students needed a preceptor to act as a
mentor before they took the bar exam. Arsht wanted to work in
Wilmington but didn't know any attorneys, Hoffecker said. The
person he did find to work for had very little business so Arsht
spent most of his time reading law in the law library of the City
County Building. State Court Judge Richard S. Rodney had an office
adjacent to the law library and began to wonder who Arsht was. The
two struck up an acquaintance and Rodney asked Arsht to be his law
clerk.
     In the midst of the Depression in December 1933, Rodney
introduced Arsht to Hugh M. Morris, an attorney returning to
private practice after serving as a U.S. District Court judge.
Morris offered Arsht a job and on May 1, 1934, after completing his
last exam at the University of Pennsylvania, Arsht went to work for
the Morris firm. He was the first person in his law school class to
be offered a job, and he was paid the going rate for lawyers in New
York City, $125 per month.
     Arsht worked in the law firm, now known as Morris, Nichols,
Arsht & Tunnell, for 46 years, until l980. In that time his clients
numbered among the giants of American corporate life-including the
Ford Motor Co., U.S. Steel, Mobil Oil and Coca-Cola.
     In the 1960s, Hoffecker said, Arsht was able to leave a very
important lasting legacy to corporate law in the state of Delaware
when he chaired the committee, established by the state, to
redesign the Delaware Corporate Statute.
     In conferring Arsht's degree, Andrew J. Kirkpatrick, chairman
of the University's Board of Trustees, noted that Arsht's career
has run the gamut, including the areas of admiralty law, estate
administration, zoning, litigation and corporate law. He said Arsht
has a national reputation as the "leader of Wilmington's Rodney
Square legal establishment."
     He cited Arsht as a vital member of the Delaware Bar
Association, where he has chaired important committees on trusts
and estates, legislation and corporation law.
     He also chaired the Supreme Court of Delaware's censor
committee and served on the rules committees of the Delaware Court
of Chancery, the Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the
District of Delaware.
     In the public arena, he served as general counsel for the
Delaware State Highway Department and was a member of the
governor's tax advisory committee whose recommendation produced the
basic revenue raising measures used by the state today.
     He chaired the Delaware Revised Code Commission, codifying for
the first time the statutory law of the state of Delaware into the
code of l953, which remains the foundation of the state code today.
     He then chaired the drafting committee of the Delaware
Corporation Law Revision Commission which wrote the 1967 revision
to Delaware corporate law which, Kirkpatrick said, serves as a
model for farsighted corporations worldwide.
     As a public servant, he was a founder and president of
Wilmington's Child Guidance Center and a founder of the Wilmington
Senior Center. He has served on the boards of numerous groups,
including the University of Delaware Library Associates.
     Kirkpatrick praised Arsht for his "total commitment to the
life of the mind and his unrelenting quest for enrichment and
growth" and said Arsht's life is exemplified by the ancient
proverb, "If you are planting for a year, sow rice. If you are
planting for a decade, plant trees. If you are planting for a
lifetime, educate a person."
     In his thank you speech, Arsht cited Rodney and Morris as
"giants of the Delaware bench and bar" and noted their influence on
the course of his life. He said he felt humbled to receive an
honorary degree that also had been bestowed on his two mentors.
     "The University's conferral on me today of the same degree
brings a tremor of unworthiness and at the same time makes me both
proud and happy in the thought that, these many years after their
deaths, I am still walking humbly in their footsteps." he said.
     In reference to the Academy of Lifelong Learning, Arsht said,
"When I stopped going to my office almost seven years ago, I
thought I knew all I needed to know for my own well-being. I was
wrong. I now know it's what you learn after you know it all that
really counts."
                                        - Beth Thomas