Talk on Rehnquist Court to initiate lectures honoring Abraham

Tinsley E. Yarbrough, Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences at East Carolina University, will give the inaugural Henry J. Abraham Lecture Sept. 24 at 4 p.m. in the Law School' Caplin Auditorium. Yarbrough's lecture, "The Rehnquist Court," is free and open to the public, but reservations are required (call 295-4784). A reception will follow.

The new annual lecture, under the auspices of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, honors Henry J. Abraham, the James Hart Professor Emeritus of Government and Foreign Affairs and winner of the 1983 Thomas Jefferson Award, the highest honor bestowed by the University. He retired in January 1997 after a 50-year career split almost evenly between the University of Pennsylvania and U.Va.

Former students, colleagues, family and friends have raised nearly $45,000 toward their goal of $60,000 to endow the lectureship, said Barbara Perry, one of Abraham¹s former doctoral students and now a member of the faculty at Sweetbriar College. Many of the contributors are expected at the first lecture, she said.

"That's the kind of person he is," Perry said. "He instilled that kind of loyalty and support."