Prof. Dworkin Retires from 'Very Best Job'
Indiana Law is a school dedicated to teaching, filled with memorable pedagogy.
Yet some figures—like Professor Roger Dworkin—remain cemented in the minds of graduates.
"I have had conversations with more graduates than I can name or count who have been away from this school for 25 years—30 years—who say to me, 'I still hear Roger Dworkin's voice," said Dean Lauren Robel as she announced the professor's Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching in April. "They say, 'What he taught me I still think about every day and what he did has shaped me into the person and the lawyer that I am. The best part of what I do I learned from Roger Dworkin.'"
Dworkin, who retires this spring, humbly accepted the special recognition as tribute for the legacy he leaves. Students for decades have named him among the finest teachers in their lifetime. "To give me recognition for teaching is to award me for eating ice cream," he said, smiling. "It is what I love to do. I kid around that the only better job than mine would be as restaurant critic for the New York Times. That is a joke. I have the very best job in the world."
"The sustenance that all the gourmet restaurants of New York could provide does not begin to equal the sustenance that my students have given me," he said. "If I have contributed anything to you or to those who've gone before you, it is just a small down payment for the debt that I owe to you—for sharing your lives, enthusiasm, your generosity of spirit, your talents, and your professionalism with me. And I thank you all very, very much."
A graduate of Princeton and Stanford universities and a nationally recognized expert on the responses of the legal system to medical and biological technology, Dworkin is the author of three books and dozens of articles. He is a Nelson Poynter Senior Scholar and director of medical studies at the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions.
He was honored during the 2007 Teaching Awards ceremony held April 16 in the Moot Court Room.