John F. Carroll's colleagues in the Richmond School of Law believe Carroll's lasting legacy will be his family, his students and his warm, open-minded personality.
Carroll, 44, passed away on March 8 from natural causes. In the midst of his third year on the University of Richmond staff, Carroll served as the university's first director of the intellectual property and transactional law clinic.
"When the law school decided we wanted an intellectual properties and law clinic, John had such a great vision for what the clinic could be," Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Clark Williams said.
Williams said Carroll had been a student of his while Carroll had been pursuing his Juris Doctor at Richmond's law school. Carroll graduated with the degree in 1995, the same year as the birth of his first daughter, Hallie.
"He was so close with his family and loved to talk about them," Williams said. "[Hallie] was a senior in high school this year and, just about two weeks ago, she learned that she's been accepted to start at the University of Richmond as a freshman next fall, so that was a high moment in John's life."
Carroll married his high school sweetheart, Maria, in 1989 and had two other daughters, Hannah and Meg, and one son, Jack.
A devoted member of the Christian faith, Carroll met with student members of the Christian Law Foundation on a weekly basis to talk about how he dealt with the intersection of his faith and professional life, Williams said.
Williams said Carroll had also served as faculty adviser to the Muslim Law Students Association at the university.
"He helped the Muslim Law Students, the Jewish Law Student Association and the Christian Law Foundation all begin to work to provide events together to help stimulate this conversation within the law school about faith in practice and the professional and personal and spiritual lives and how they come together," he said.
Richmond law student Qasim Rashid serves as the president of the Muslim Law Students Association, and he wrote a post on his website after Carroll's passing to share the lessons Carroll taught him.
"Professor Carroll first reached out to me in Sept. 2010 when an unfortunate person was threatening to burn the Koran," Rashid wrote. "He stopped me in the hallway, only to tell me that as a Christian, he condemned the act... Humility in God's path--that was Professor Carroll defined."
Many of the professors Carroll worked most closely with in the university's clinical law department hadn't know about his advisory role with the Muslim Law Students, but they weren't surprised when they found out.
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"He probably felt that his faith had enriched his life so much that if other people could develop their faith wherever that tradition may be that they'd see some of the same benefits," said Margaret Bacigal, director of the clinical placement program.
"It speaks to how open-minded he was that he wanted other students to have that faith connection, whatever it might be," said Julie McConnell, director of the delinquency clinic.
Dale Margolin, director of the family law clinic, said she wished she had known earlier about Carroll's dedication to his faith.
"I have no doubt that that I could have walked into is office at any time and talked about being an atheist," Margolin said, "and we would have had an amazing conversation. I just wish I could have that conversation with him now because it would really enrich me."
Williams said he was a better person for having worked with Carroll. Carroll's other colleagues agreed.
"He teaches subtly, and you don't even realize he's been teaching you something until you reflect on the conversation," Adrienne Volenik, director of the education rights clinic, said. "There was never that sense of 'I'm really good at this' or 'You need to know this.' It was always that sense of generous sharing."
"Students really gravitated toward him -- in the hall, in his office, in terms of enrollment, in terms of organizations at the law school -- so he had the kind of personality that had the necessary texture and dimension for all sorts of interactions," said Mary Kelly Tate, director of the institute for actual innocence.
McConnell, who started working for the university last August, said Carroll had been incredibly welcoming. He made her feel like she was part of the team from the very beginning, she said.
"He was just one of those people who when he stopped to talk to you, he really focused on you, and you felt like you were the only person he was talking to or thinking about," McConnell said. "He wasn't thinking about what he was going to do next as we often are.
"I had a conversation with him on the last day of school before spring break, which was the last time most of us saw him. He was giving me some advice on how to grade papers because I had asked about it once before, and he just remembered that, so he happened to see me as I was grading a student's paper, and he showed me.
"I'm sure he wanted to leave -- it was Friday afternoon the day before spring break -- but he just took the time to do that and that was very typical of John."
Tate also remembered her final conversation with Carroll.
"I poked my head in [his office] on Monday before spring break and told him I needed his professional advice on a problem I was having, and he was busy," she said. "He said, 'I'll clear the deck, you just let me know when' and that's the way he was.
"He would stop what he was doing and be very generous, and I got that advice from him the next day."
His colleagues also praised his teaching abilities. McConnell said his clinic had been the most popular among students.
"He had also been in contact with several [other] universities who were interested in setting up [intellectual properties and transactions] clinics," Volenik said, "because in the short period of time -- remember this is his third year -- the work he had done had become so well noted that other schools were contacting him for assistance, and that's quite remarkable for a young clinician."
Contact staff writer David Weissman at david.weissman@richmond.edu
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