(article is
from the news section)
4/10/2004 - Special to THE POST-JOURNAL
Former Supreme Court law clerk John David Fassett will speak at the Robert H.
Jackson Center on April 28 as part of a discussion between former clerks involved
in the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision.
The 1954 decision ended segregation in public schools. Fassett is one of four
clerks who worked on the decision who will speak at the Jackson Center as part
of the Jackson Center's 50th anniversary of the case. The roundtable will be
held in the Carl Cappa Theater inside the Jackson Center and is open to the
public at no charge.
Anyone interested in attending the discussion should be in the theater no later
than 10 a.m. No one will be admitted after 10 a.m. because of technical/production
requirements.
There will also be a lunch reception following the discussion that will be free
to the public. Chautauqua Abstract, the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce,
Habiterra Architects and Landscape Architects and the Jamestown Bar Association
are joining to host the reception.
''The roundtable is a unique event providing an inside look at the makings of
the Brown decision and is designed to create further dialogue about the impact
of this groundbreaking case,'' said Gregory L. Peterson, Jackson Center president.
Peterson said Fassett will bring an interesting perspective to the discussion
because he published an article in 1986 in the Supreme Court Historical Society
Yearbook regarding Justice Stanley Reed's role in the Brown case relating several
incidents regarding Justice Robert H. Jackson.
Fassett was born in East Hampton, Long Island, in 1926. He joined the U.S. Army
in 1943 and graduated from the University of Rochester in 1947 before graduating
from Yale Law School in 1953. Following his service as a law clerk to Justice
Reed in 1953-54, Fassett joined the law firm of Wiggin & Dana in New Haven,
Conn., and served as a partner from 1958-73.
Fassett was awarded the honorary degree of doctor of laws at Kentucky Wesleyan
College and has served as a visiting lecturer in the Yale University Political
Science Department while teaching courses on constitutional law and history.
He spent 15 years as chairman of the executive committee of New Haven Savings
Bank and has been director of the Register Publishing Co., Northeast Datacom
Inc., United Illuminating Co. while also serving as the company's vice president,
general counsel, president, chief executive officer and chairman.
Fassett has also had directorships on the National Association of Electric Company,
Edison Electric Institute, Electrical Council of New England, Connecticut Yankee
Atomic Corp., New England Power Pool and the Seabrook Owners' Executive Committee.
For six years, he served as director of the Barnes Group Inc., while also taking
part in the New Haven Chamber of Commerce, New Haven Downtown Council, New England
Council, director of the University of New Haven and fellow of the University
of Bridgeport.
Fassett's published writings include Mr. Justice Reed and Brown v. Board of
Education in the 1986 Yearbook Supreme Court Historical Society; The Buddha
and the Bumblebee: The Saga of Stanley Reed and Felix Frankfurter, 28 Journal
of Supreme Court History, and several other writings on the life of U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Stanley Reed. His business writings include UI-History of an Electric
Company: A Saga of Problems, Personalities and Power Politics.
He currently lives in Durham, N.C., with his wife, Betty.