THE CLERK: All rise! Hear ye, hear ye!

All persons having business with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California will now draw near, give your attention, and you shall be heard. The Honorable William B. Shubb, Chief Judge, presiding.

CHIEF JUDGE SHUBB: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the dedication of the Sherrill Halbert Lincoln collection.

I think most of you know us. If not, let me introduce the judges of our court. To my left, Judge Lawrence K. Karlton; to my right, Judge David F. Levi; behind me, Judge Garland E. Burrell, Jr.; Judge Frank C. Damrell, Jr.; Judge Milton L. Schwartz; and Judge Edward J. Garcia.

Our magistrate judges are in the jury box. They are Chief Magistrate Judge Gregory G. Hollows, Magistrate Judge John F. Moulds, Magistrate Judge Peter A. Nowinski, and Magistrate Judge Dale A. Drozd. Representing our bankruptcy court is Bankruptcy Judge Jane Dickson McKeag.

Also in the box are U.S. Attorney Paul Seave; Eugene Natali, the chief of our Probation Office, and Sue Sorum, the deputy chief; Glenn Thomas, chief of Pretrial Services; Dennis Waks, Chief Assistant Federal Defender; Richard Heltzel, clerk of the Bankruptcy Court; Pat Sandlin, chief deputy clerk; and Jerry Enomoto, U.S. Marshal. I also see some members of their staffs present. Our clerk is Jack Wagner, and our court reporter is Kelly O’Halloran.

We would like to welcome a contingent from McGeorge Law School, along with their dean who will speak to you a little later. And in the front row, we have the Halbert family, who will also be introduced to you a little later. In addition to those, we have many friends of the court, friends of Sherrill Halbert, friends of McGeorge, and friends of Abraham Lincoln here.

Forty years ago, or perhaps in this setting I should say two score years ago, our court sat in the classic courthouse at 8th and I Streets, and Sherrill Halbert presided there as the only district judge in Sacramento.

Some two years later, the court would move to what was then called the new federal building on Capitol Mall. I have heard from several sources, including his good friend Justice Anthony Kennedy and his son Douglas, that Judge Halbert refused to go unless certain changes were made. The story that Justice Kennedy tells relates to the courtroom. He pointed out that in order to enter the courtroom in that building, the judge would have to come from the back and walk through the audience. Can you imagine? One imagines it’s like the President entering the Congress to make the State of the Union Address, coming through the audience and shaking hands with the defendant and the prosecutor.

A story that Judge Halbert told had to do with the entrance to the courtroom from the holding cell. When the marshal opened the door from the holding cell, everybody in the courtroom had a clear view of the commode in the holding cell. He also told of how the judge sat so low that when a lawyer addressed the court, the judge had to look up at the lawyer speaking.

Well, eventually changes were made and Judge Halbert was finally dragged to the new courthouse kicking and screaming. The court eventually settled in, and time passed. New judges were appointed, a new district was formed, the months turned into years, years turned into decades, and what was once new became old.

Now our court has moved again to this beautiful courthouse, back home — back home on I Street and back home to a setting that I think would be more to Judge Halbert’s liking.

With the bringing of his Lincoln collection to the new courthouse, part of Judge Halbert’s legacy also returns home.

For those of you that may not have known Judge Halbert, let me tell you just a little bit about him. He was born on October 17, 1901, on a sheep ranch south of Porterville, California, that his parents homesteaded in the 1880s. In fact, his father was old enough to remember Abraham Lincoln and told him stories of Lincoln.

After he graduated from Porterville High School, he came north, attended the University of California where he graduated in 1924, and went on to Boalt Hall to attend law school. He graduated from law school in 1927, the same year that he married his wife Verna.

He then moved back to Tulare County where he became a deputy district attorney. In those days, you didn’t practice full time in a district attorney’s office, so he also had a private practice and handled just about everything.

While he was practicing in Tulare County, he became active in politics and got to know some other district attorneys around the state, one of whom was Earl Warren. In 1942, when World War II broke out, Sherrill Halbert received a telephone call from his former colleague, Earl Warren, who was now Attorney General. He said, “Sherrill, with the war, all of my young men have left the office, and I drastically need your help. Can you come to work for me as a deputy attorney general?” Judge Halbert replied, “Yes, I can do that. How soon would you need me?” The Attorney General said, “How about Monday?”

Telling the story later, the judge said he just gave up his practice and moved to San Francisco to become a deputy attorney general. He was later in a San Francisco law firm for a short time, but he longed to get back to the valley. So he left San Francisco and went to work in the District Attorney’s Office in Stanislaus County. While he was there, some of his friends mounted a grass-roots movement to appoint him to the Superior Court, but it didn’t happen. So he resigned himself to staying in the District Attorney’s Office, and he ran for district attorney and was elected.

Shortly after he was elected district attorney, he received a call from Earl Warren, and he said, “Sherrill, I think it’s time you become a Superior Court judge.” So from 1949 to 1954, he was a judge of the Stanislaus County Superior Court.

On August 26, 1954, he became a United States District Judge here in Sacramento. He served on this court until he took senior status in 1969, and eventually retired in 1985. He moved to Marin County where he lived until he passed away in 1991.

Besides his interest in Lincoln, he was active in the Sacramento Camellia Festival, the Pioneer Society, and the Pony Express Centennial Celebration.

I first met Judge Halbert sometime in the winter of 1962-1963. I was a third year law school student at the time at Boalt Hall, and the dean told me there was an opportunity to interview with a federal judge for a clerkship. I seized the opportunity and agreed to meet with the judge on a Saturday at the dean’s office in Berkeley.

I was waiting in front of the office for the judge. You have to know that I had never met a judge before that day except in my moot court argument. I never even knew any lawyers. I didn’t know what a judge looked like. I was waiting at the top of the stairs as several people came up wondering whether each of them was the judge. But when I saw this man start to come up the stairs, I knew this was the judge. He was tall, square jaw, iron gray hair, and confident in appearance.

I interviewed with him, and he invited me to come to Sacramento.

When I visited him in Sacramento about a week later, I still remember the impressions I got of those chambers. As you walked into the chambers, in his waiting area there was a picture of Abraham Lincoln. He was proud to point out that that was a print from the original negative. That picture is downstairs, and you will be able to see it this afternoon.

When you entered his chambers at that time, the building was new, there was a smell of fresh leather, the carpets were new, and the wood was new. He had paperweights all around the office, and you are going to see some of those in the Lincoln collection. And on the wall, there was a collection of Lincoln books. I thought at that time that was the entire collection. Little did I know that it was but a small part of it. I knew at that moment that I met a real judge.

Judge Halbert reflected some of the differences in culture between the big cities of the Bay Area and Southern California, on the one hand, and the more rural communities of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys on the other. The thing that, in my mind, most typifies that is some of the folksy sayings he used to use.

When he wanted to keep the pressure on, especially on attorneys, or to keep the situation under control, he would say, “You’ve got to keep them up to the snubbing post.”

When he wanted to urge somebody to make a decision, he would say, “They have to fish or cut bait.” Later he changed that to, “They have to fish, cut bait, or go ashore.” I guess he wanted to give them a third option.

Whenever it was too late to turn back on a situation, he would say, “Well, the fat’s in the fire.”

One of my favorites was, “If you want to ride in the parlor car, you have to pay parlor car prices.” He would use that when a recalcitrant defendant would refuse to be tried before the United States Commissioner, which was the predecessor of the U.S. Magistrate, and later the U.S. Magistrate judges. He would tell them that they would get a fair trial in the District Court, but if they were found guilty, instead of a $5 fine, they might have to pay a $50 fine.

And perhaps my most favorite is one that I use all the time. I’ve used it to the media, and I’ve used it to lawyers in connection with this building. He said, “Anything with more moving parts than a crowbar is bound to break down.”

Although he had the rural culture, he also had the tastes of a gentleman in the old tradition. I remember when he took his afternoon break from trial, he had his secretary bring him tea. She didn’t just bring it in a paper cup. It came in a china teapot with a china cup. And sitting in my office next door to his, I could hear the china rattling as he had his tea in the afternoon.

He also had great respect for the court staff. I am told that hardly a day passed when he didn’t make a point of visiting the clerk’s office and saying something to everybody there. Judge Halbert would appreciate seeing so many members of the clerk’s office here today.

He also respected his probation officers, which at that time were the same as Pretrial Services officers. He valued their advice, but he didn’t put them on the spot. He didn’t ask for written recommendations. He listened to them, but he didn’t want the lawyers to be able to put the pressure on the probation officers. He accepted that responsibility himself.

Judge Halbert is remembered as a practical judge, a no-nonsense judge. He is not generally thought of as a scholar or a legal theorist. But there was another side to this tough prosecutor, this tough judge. He had a very strong judicial philosophy that guided him like an internal gyroscope. It was a philosophy which at that time was not very popular. You have to understand that most of the popular jurists of that day were what we would call today judicial activists. And he eschewed what he called “judicial legislation.”

Shortly after he took the bench in 1956, he took the opportunity to express his philosophy in an opinion that he wrote. He didn’t have a law clerk write this opinion. He wrote it himself. I would like to read to you just a few passages from that opinion. These are not quotes that he found from some Supreme Court justice or someone else. These are the words of Sherrill Halbert himself expressing his judicial philosophy.

He said, “The power to declare what the law shall be belongs to the legislative branch of the government; the power to declare what the law is, or has been, belongs to the judicial branch of the government …. Neither of these branches of the government may invade the province of the other …. The courts declare and enforce the law, but they do not make the law …. The legislative department alone has the duty of making laws.

“[A] Court that judicially legislates,” he said, “commits an obvious violation of the Constitution itself. For a court to usurp legislative power in violation of the affirmative edicts of the Constitution is more reprehensible than an unconstitutional act done by an individual, or individuals, who are unskilled in the law and who are under no oath to uphold, protect, and defend the Constitution. The mere fact that a court does an act in violation of the Constitution does not give the act done any more dignity or moral force than it would have had if it had been done by another.

“Courts that assume that they have the omnipotent wisdom which gives them the power to determine what is good or bad for the people, even against the wishes of the people, are talking in terms of, and acting in direct conformity with modern day totalitarianism, and are taking steps toward a dictatorship or oligarchy, both of which are completely foreign and offensive to our form of government, which is a government of the laws and not of men.” [In re Shear, 139 F.Supp. 217, 220-222 (N.D.Cal. 1956).]

Those were the courageous words of a strong judge.

Of course, he was also a Lincoln scholar. We know that. His collection of published materials on Abraham Lincoln was said to be one of the most complete, if not the most complete, in the West. I went down this morning and I looked at them, and I tried to count the books. There must be more than a thousand books there on Abraham Lincoln. Of course, that is what brings us here today.

When he retired, he donated his entire Lincoln collection to McGeorge Law School. It is not just happenstance that Judge Halbert chose McGeorge as the beneficiary of his Lincoln collection. He was a longtime friend of McGeorge and a friend of former Dean Gordon Schaber.

I would now like to call upon the current Dean Gerald Caplan to make a few remarks on behalf of McGeorge.

DEAN CAPLAN: Thank you very much, Judge Shubb. Members of the court, members of the Halbert family, distinguished guests:

I know this is an especially meaningful occasion for Judge Shubb. You saw the importance of the Lincoln collection, the Lincoln memorabilia, when you served as Judge Halbert’s clerk for two years following your graduation from law school. And now, 35 years later, you and your judicial colleagues are giving a distinctive tribute to this timeless treasure, and it will be housed in the spacious, state-of-the-art library.

It’s been a long time since I made an appearance in Federal Court, and never under more pleasing circumstances, and never in such a handsome facility. You’re also providing a well-deserved, meaningful tribute to Judge Halbert.

I won’t traverse the record of his professional career, but I want to make a few notes regarding his connection with McGeorge.

When Judge Halbert presented his Lincoln collection to McGeorge, he explained that Abraham Lincoln was greatly admired by members of his family. His grandfather, a Missourian, Dr. Joel Halbert, was a staunch Union man and supported Abraham Lincoln for president in 1860. Judge Halbert’s father was old enough to serve briefly with Union forces during the Civil War, and he, too, was a great admirer of President Lincoln.

As a child, Judge Halbert frequently was exposed to commendations of President Lincoln in glowing terms. As a high school student, he was asked along with his classmates to write an essay on some prominent American. And it won’t surprise most of you in this room that he chose Abraham Lincoln. When he couldn’t find a suitable biography in the school library, he went to the local bookstore, and for 50 cents he bought the one-volume biography of Lincoln by John Nicolay. This biography sparked his interest in building his Lincoln collection as a lifetime avocation. And the original volume by Nocolay is included in this collection which totals 1,247 items, 878 of which are published works.

I didn’t count them, but I am indebted to our fine librarians who did. Many of these are autographed by authors and include numbered copies as collected items.

Judge Halbert is recognized for having personally visited virtually every site where Lincoln lived and/or was involved in notable activity. And he himself expressed the view that excepting Shakespeare, a well-known British playwright, Abraham Lincoln’s mastery of the English language was exceeded by none.

Judge Halbert was troubled because Lincoln’s life was so closely identified with his presidency, and he felt that insufficient attention was given to Lincoln’s long career as a lawyer. Lincoln, as we know, conducted his practice in a modest office above the federal courtroom in the Eighth Judicial Circuit in Springfield, Illinois. His furniture included one small desk, a table, a sofa, half dozen plain wooden chairs, and a few enclosed shelves for books. The floor was rarely scrubbed. He prepared cases for the federal courts, the Illinois Supreme Court, and rode circuit for several months twice a year.

He also made it clear that upon the conclusion of his presidency, he would “go right back on practicing law as if nothing ever happened.”

Lincoln remains as one of the most popular figures in American history. There are over 14,000 titles on every aspect of his life in the Library of Congress. And a computer search revealed 26,604 references, with the number steadily increasing.

As dean, it is my distinct privilege to represent the McGeorge School of Law and to have made arrangements with my librarian, Katherine Henderson, to loan Judge Sherrill Halbert’s Lincoln collection as an addition to the living history of our justice system so beautifully displayed in the library below.

It is appropriate, I believe, also to recognize the vital role that Judge Halbert served in the early life of the McGeorge School of Law. He was chairman of the board until we merged with the University of the Pacific. He was a member of the advisory committee. He was a member of the regents of the University of the Pacific. So it’s my pleasure to share this moment with you.

And perhaps saving the most important for last, but I want to give my deep appreciation for the work of the librarians, particularly Susanne Plies. I hope it’s not inappropriate for me to ask you to stand and get the recognition you deserve. And, of course, our librarian Katherine Henderson.

Thank you very much, your Honor.

CHIEF JUDGE SHUBB: Since Judge Halbert would like us to remember Abraham Lincoln’s career as a lawyer, it is fitting that we should hear from the bar. Here to speak on behalf of the bar and on behalf of Mr. Lincoln, we have Jan Patrick Sherry of the Sacramento Barristers Club.

JAN PATRICK SHERRY: Thank you, your Honor.

Members of the court, members of the Halbert family, ladies and gentlemen:

I’d like to first take this opportunity to tell you that whenever you organize an event like this, it takes a lot of people. And I’d like to, first of all, thank Jack Wagner and his staff for getting all the invitations out.

And when Judge Shubb approached the Barristers to help and be involved in this event, I did what every president does. I appointed a committee. My committee members are in the back. They are Noreen Skelly — if you would just stand for half a second — Jennifer Shaw, Laura Fowler, and Ken Marks.

All of the food and drink downstairs and all of the preparations for this event are due to their hard work as well as Judge Shubb’s hard work. And I’m eternally grateful to them.

I’d also like to take a moment to thank the sponsors for his event. The Daily Recorder has provided us with funds; as has Wilke, Fleury, Hoffelt, Gould & Birney; Weintraub, Genshlea & Sproul; and Downey, Brand, Seymour & Rohwer.

You’ve had an opportunity this afternoon to hear what kind of man Judge Halbert was. And I’m sorry that I did not have an opportunity to meet him while he was alive. And you’ve had an opportunity to hear about his connections with the court and his connections with McGeorge.

As someone here speaking on behalf of young lawyers, which is my mission as the president of the Barristers, I’d like to turn your attention to a speech that Abraham Lincoln gave in 1850. I think that you’ll agree that what Abraham Lincoln said in 1850 applies to new lawyers, lawyers at my stage of their career, older lawyers, and judges alike. I’m certain that I won’t due Abraham Lincoln justice in my presentation, but I hope you’ll bear with me.

In addressing a law school in 1850, Abraham Lincoln said:

“I am not an accomplished lawyer. I find quite as much material for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed as in those wherein I have been moderately successful.

“The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then be done. When you bring a common law suit, if you have the facts for doing so, write the declaration at once. If a law point be involved, examine the books, and note the authority you rely on upon the declaration itself, where you are sure to find it when wanted. The same of defenses and pleas. In business not likely to be litigated — ordinary collection cases, foreclosures, partitions, and the like — make all examinations of title, and note them, and even draft orders and decrees in advance. This course has a triple advantage; it avoids omissions and neglect, saves your labor when once done, performs the labor out of court when you have leisure, rather than in court when you have not. Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated. It is the lawyer’s avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying too much on speech-making. If any one, upon his rare powers of speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his case is a failure in advance.

“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

“Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in title, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it.

“The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere question of bread and butter involved. Properly attended to, fuller justice is done to both lawyer and client. An exorbitant fee should never be claimed. As a general rule, never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, as if something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your client. And when you lack interest in the case, the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance. Settle the amount of fee and take a note in advance. Then you will feel that you are working for something, and you are sure to do your work faithfully and well. Never sell a fee note — at least not before the consideration service is performed. It leads to negligence and dishonesty — negligence by losing interest in the case, and dishonesty in refusing to refund when you have allowed the consideration to fail.

There is a vague, popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider to what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the impression is common, almost universal.

“Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief — resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be an knave.”

Abraham Lincoln said that in 1850. Those comments I think are as important today as they were 150 years ago. Those of us who are members of the bar, who appear here in this court and in courts across the land, should be diligent, should be honest, and have integrity.

Judge Halbert wrote in his description of the Lincoln collection, “I think it is an inspiration to anyone who desires to become a lawyer to see these many volumes that this one man, this country boy who had less than one year of schooling, has caused to be created or has actually brought into being. It is an inspiration and lots of fine ideas ready for students to absorb. Lincoln was no simpleton. He was a bright man, an honest man, and a very clear-thinking man.”

I hope that you take the words of Lincoln to heart as you go downstairs and look at the collection. It’s displayed in a very beautiful setting and in a very nice way. My commendations to the librarians who put it up. It’s really impressive. It’s an impressive group of works about an impressive man who continues to talk to us 150 years later.

Thank you, your Honor.

CHIEF JUDGE SHUBB: I see so many more friends of the court and friends of Judge Halbert here that I wish I could introduce all of you, but there are two that I would be remiss if I did not ask to stand. And that is Martha MacBride. Martha, would you please stand. And Sue Wilkins.

Our last speaker before we adjourn to the library will look very familiar to you if you knew Judge Halbert, but it’s not Judge Halbert. It’s his son Douglas. He is going to speak on behalf of the family, and I hope he will introduce all of the family members, and perhaps have some of them will say a few words to you as well.

Judge Halbert’s son, Douglas Halbert.

DOUGLAS J. HALBERT SR.:

Judge Shubb, members of the court: I am humbled by the number of people that are here. It is a very moving experience for me.

There is to this day no man who ever protested more strongly than my father when he was asked to be the part, the limelight, the leader for some particular function. He would protest and protest. And then when finally convinced that he should do it, he loved every minute of it.

Now, I am going to defer making a long speech to the group here today, because I understand there’s some nice refreshments downstairs. But I would like to introduce some of my father’s legacy who are going to say a few words, and then I will introduce — well, I think I’ll introduce the entire family first, then we’ll introduce the ones who are going to say a few words.

First of all, my sister, the greatest sibling a guy could ever have, Shirley Eager. Would you stand and at least let them see you.

We fought like cats and dogs as children, and we found out when we got to about our 20s or 30s, I guess, that having a brother or having a sister wasn’t such a bad deal after all.

Shirley’s husband, Stanley Eager, is here with us today, and a former member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. So he has been in the federal system also.

Next in line is the eldest of the grandchildren, Burt Hanson. I say the eldest. I believe it was 24, 48 hours’ difference between the time that Burt was born and my son Douglas was born. And he is with us today too. Burt’s wife Linda is with us. My daughter-in-law Michelle is with us. And sleeping, so we won’t bother him, is the third generation of Halberts here in Michelle’s lap. This is Douglas, III. And my two granddaughters, Amanda and Allison.

And that is the Halbert family that is here today and so very proud to have all of you people acknowledging this great day for my dad.

Now, before I go any further, I will have a few more words to say, but Burt is dying to say some words. And he gets first crack at it because he’s the older of the grandchildren. So Burt, I turn this to you.

MR. HANSON:

Thank you, Doug. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished judges.

Judge Shubb conveyed some personal thoughts about my grandfather, and I’d just like to expand on that a little bit, if I might.

Judge Sherrill Halbert, he lived from 1901 to 1991. As you heard, he was born just south of Porterville in the central valley. He was a lifelong Californian. Thirty of those years were spent right here in Sacramento, a city he thoroughly enjoyed. His passions were many: Law, history, the Pony Express, and family. He met while attending Cal, and later married, his college sweetheart Verna in 1927. She remained his love, companion, and soul mate for 64 years.

He loved his children, he adored and spoiled his grandchildren, and found inspiration in his great grandchildren. The memories I have of my grandfather are still vivid. He was a man of great character and class. He defined what was right and decent about this country. He found solace and beauty in his treasured gardens which he nurtured until his death at age 90.

So on behalf of my mother, Shirley Halbert Eager, her husband Stan Eager, my twin sister Karen who could not be here today, I would like to thank Judge Bill Shubb, the judges of the United States District Court, Eastern, McGeorge School of Law, the Daily Recorder, and the Sacramento Barristers Club for this wonderful tribute and dedication.

As a family, we are delighted to know that you regarded this extraordinary individual as highly as we did and feel fortunate to have known him.

Judge Sherrill Halbert, for 32 years, I knew him simply as Grandpa.

Thank you.

DOUGLAS J. HALBERT JR.:

Good afternoon. Judge Shubb, members of the court, Dean Caplan, Mr. Sherry, honored guests:

My family and I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to you for your insights and your kind words about my grandfather, Judge Sherrill Halbert, and for the formal dedication of the Sherrill Halbert Lincoln collection.

In the spirit of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, my goal is to keep my remarks to under 300 words and keeping over two-thirds of them in one syllable. Now, being an engineer, this should not be a problem. But I believe my grandfather would have wanted it this way.

I remember my grandfather as a quiet man, unassuming, but full of life. In many ways similar to the man, the other man, that we are here to honor today, President Lincoln. Whether he was involved in preserving a piece of history as the president of the National Pony Express or creating a piece of beauty with his love for Camellias, he was always involved in helping people.

And a child, I remember asking him what he enjoyed the most about being a judge. He responded that he enjoyed the naturalization ceremonies the most. That seems fitting of a man who admired Abraham Lincoln. By the way, this is the same judge who reminded us on a number of occasions that if we ever ended up in his courtroom, to bring a toothbrush, because that’s all we would need where we were going.

I believe it is a true mark of a great person based on what they are able to give to others. In the case of my grandfather, I believe he gave the greatest gift of all, his time and his passion to make things right for the people. A selfless pursuit, but one that made life a better place for all of us. I am proud of what he accomplished, and I admire his values.

Once again, from Judge Sherrill Halbert’s five grandchildren, the oldest of which who spoke so eloquently before me, and his 11 great grandchildren, the youngest of which I’m proud to say sits quietly in my wife’s arms, still, we would like to thank you for this wonderful dedication in the honor of my grandfather.

It is now my distinct honor to introduce another man I admire, my father, Douglas Halbert, Sr.

Thank you.

DOUGLAS J. HALBERT SR.: Those two gentlemen are a tough act to follow. And I only have a few more remarks before we close out. But Dad recounted to me his days when he was growing up on that ranch in Tulare County, he actually did do his lessons by the light of a fire, much like we have heard of Abraham Lincoln doing, learning of their lessons.

He loved history. And from his high school days forward, he set his goal to emulate the type of person that he saw Abraham Lincoln to be. And while he did not become the president of the United States, he became the president of my state of mind. He gave me leadership, guidance. And I will never, ever be able to thank him for all of that which he gave me as a child and as an adult. Long into the years that I was in the business world, my father’s advice was still very salient and appropriate.

And we’re here today to honor him because he always had the right phrase for the right situation. He never claimed to be the originator of those phrases. He only many claimed to be a selected plagiarist.

Now, one of them has already been stolen by Judge Shubb, and I guess that’s his privilege because he’s the chief judge. So I won’t use that one.

But to me, I heard so many times as a child, “Be sure to tell the truth the first time, then you will not have to remember what you said when called upon to repeat it.”

Now, once in a while I didn’t obey that rule, and there was a very, very harsh reaction. He had a razor strap and knew how to use it. And guess what, it didn’t really harm my psyche for the rest of my life.

The next one I skipped because it was stolen, and in the interest of heeding the advice of this man for whom I have such great admiration, I’m going to close with just two of those phrases that I remember so well.

“I never had to explain anything that I did not say.” Think about it.

And “I never learned anything while I was doing the talking.”

And with those two comments, I would just like to say that my sister Shirley and all of our children cannot thank all of you enough for being here today and for those of you who made all of these arrangements and are honoring our father. We’re just most appreciative. And I thank you very much to all.

CHIEF JUDGE SHUBB: Thank you, Douglas.

I had not heard about the razor strap before, but I can tell you there were a number of defendants that appeared in this court that got the taste of his judicial razor strap.

We now come to the most enjoyable and important part of the proceedings where we adjourn downstairs and unveil the plaque and formally dedicate the Halbert Lincoln collection.

I invite all of you to go downstairs where we will do that. When you go in the library, you will see the Lincoln collection as you first walk in the door. We had showcases specially built to display the part of the Lincoln collection that was on display at McGeorge, and their law librarian graciously set it up for us. You will see the portrait on the right. And on the left there is a podium where there is a book that has the entire list of all of the books, along with some brochures. I hope there are enough for you at least to look at and maybe to take home.

The rest of the collection which could not fit in the showcases is around the corner, and you may look at that as well. There will be some refreshments outside the room. When we are all down there, we will formally unveil the plaque and dedicate the collection.

Mr. Clerk, would you please adjourn the court.

THE CLERK: All rise.

(Proceedings were concluded.)