Don Dorfman, JD'57
Don Dorfman grew up in Evansville, Ind., but didn't visit Bloomington until high school, when his winning basketball team came to IU's picturesque campus for a semifinals game.
"I never knew such a beautiful campus existed in Southern Indiana. I just fell in love with the School and decided that I would go to Bloomington," he says.
Dorfman's family struggled with finances, so he got an after-school job at a drive-in restaurant and "saved every nickel." He was accepted to IU and worked ceaselessly as a dishwasher, busboy, and waiter to pay his way through undergraduate and law school classes. He even rented himself out as a human subject for the Department of Psychology at $1 per hour.
After leaving his beloved IU, Dorfman was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force where he served as judge advocate and chief prosecutor, then as a deputy district attorney in Sacramento County, eventually becoming a successful criminal defense lawyer in California.
But he never stopped pouring his heart into the School. Dorfman, an alumni recruiter, represents the School of Law at college fairs in northern California and western Nevada. For nearly 10 years, he has served as president of the Sacramento IU Alumni Club, as a member of the Board of Visitors, and as the most successful class agent for Indiana Law's Fund for Excellence.
He inspires high levels of classmate participation because he empathizes with financial burden and the value of support. "When I was in school, scholarships for law students were nonexistent," says Dorfman, who established a Law School needs-based scholarship in 2003. "My idea in endowing a scholarship is to make it easier financially for some student to get an education than it was for me."
In 2005, Dorfman earned a Distinguished Service Award from the Law School. The award honored his support for Indiana Law and outreach as a member of the California State Committee of the Employer's Support of the Guard, Reserve Boards of Jewish Family Services, Sacramento Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals, and Capital Public Radio.