Remembering Dick Posner
My mom once told me about a conversation she’d had with Judge Richard “Dick” Posner’s wife, Charlene. She’d asked whether the Posners were going to an upcoming conference in Tokyo—the sort of meeting it would have made sense for them to attend. This was way before Kindles, and they weren’t going, Charlene explained, because Dick couldn’t carry enough books that far to keep him occupied for that long.
Dick died on Nov. 10, at 87. Few people have been more important to my intellectual growth or my career. I worked for him as a research assistant at the University of Chicago, later taught his work, and have spent much of my professional life thinking about law in ways I learned from him. We can debate whether he’s really the most influential legal scholar of all time (he is), but there’s no question about the unmatched depth of his influence on me and countless others.