"Her wit and humor - with a soupçon or more of sarcasm - enlivened many a tedious meeting" -Bob D

Early in my career, I had done just enough reading in sociology to be dangerous and came upon the work of the famous sociologist Robert K. Merton. Though I didn’t know the full range of his many accomplishments, the name stuck in my mind. Sometime later I met Vanessa and vaguely wondered whether there was any connection between them, and, lo and behold, learned that Vanessa was his daughter. Still later, I became aware that Vanessa’s brother, Robert C. Merton, won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Talk about an accomplished family!

Anyone knowing Vanessa would not be surprised to know that she was not one to brag about the above connections. (One does wonder what dinner conversations in the Merton household were like.) She has been a fierce advocate for her clients and for clinical legal education and those who practice it. At once unassuming and passionate (if that combination is not an impossible one), one could always count on her for sharp insights into whatever issue was under discussion. Her wit and humor - with a soupçon or more of sarcasm - enlivened many a tedious meeting of law professors (yes, even clinicians can drone on). I can only imagine how many clinical clients and students look to her as both a role model and as someone who made their lives better in demonstrable ways.

Bob D