Reporter Volume 26, No.8 October 27, 1994

By STEVE COX
Reporter Staff
Alumni of the UB Law School gathered Saturday, Oct. 22, to bestow upon
SUNY Trustee Arnold B. Gardner and State Sen. Dale M. Volker the Law
School Alumni Association's highest honor: the Edwin F. Jaeckle Award.
	Some 200 area attorneys, jurists, law faculty and students
gathered in the atrium of the Center for the Arts to attend the
Jaeckle Award Luncheon, which capped off the 19th Annual UB Law Alumni
Convocation. Earlier that morning, the audience had been treated to a
detailed discussion of the state's new domestic violence laws by their
author, State Sen. Stephen M. Saland, and a distinguished panel of
local experts.
	Gardner, a senior partner in the Buffalo law firm of Kavinoky
& Cook, was recognized for his legal work and his years of commitment
to public education. He served briefly as president of the Buffalo
School Board and has been a member of the State University Board of
Trustees for 14 years, now serving as vice chairman of the board. A
graduate of UB and Harvard Law School, Gardner becomes the first
recipient of the Jaeckle Award not to have been a graduate or former
dean of the UB law school.
	Acting Law School Dean Thomas Headrick recalled fondly an
opinion article Gardner had written placing the Shakespearean line
"first, let's kill all the lawyers" in context.
	"The line, from Henry VI, was spoken by Dick the Butcher,
surely Shakespeare's most gruesome character ever, Arnold wrote," said
Headrick. "He also called for the release of all the prisoners. You
see, his motive for killing all the lawyers was to prolong the anarchy
and keep them from restoring law and order, which he knew they would."
	President William Greiner, in presenting Gardner with his
award, commended him as not only an outstanding lawyer, but for his
dedicated service to SUNY. "Being a trustee of the state university,"
said Greiner, "is one of the toughest volunteer jobs in the country."
	Volker, a member of the UB Law class of '66, was elected to
the State Assembly in 1972 and won a special election to his current
State Senate seat in 1975. A former police officer in the village of
Depew, Volker is known for his knowledge of criminal justice issues
and has annually led the fight in Albany to restore New York's death
penalty. He is chairman of the Senate Codes Committee.This year,
Volker and his Senate colleague John Daly secured a $260,000
appropriation for the law school to begin implementation of its new
curriculum.
	Introducing Volker as his onetime colleague and mentor, former
State Sen. John Sheffer, now a UB law professor, proclaimed that "few
events will affect this region as dramatically as the day Dale Volker
decides to leave public service."
	Volker said he was "extremely humbled" by the award. Gaining
his first taste of political office when he was elected Student Bar
Association President at UB in 1966, Volker is seeking his 11th term
in the State Senate. He is squared off against another UB law alumnus,
James Kelleher. However, Greiner reassured him, "historically, any
Jaeckle Award recipient running for public office that year has won
overwhelmingly."
	The late Edwin F. Jaeckle was the first recipient, in 1976, of
the alumni award that now bears his name. A graduate of the UB Law
School, he was a founding partner of the Buffalo law firm Jaeckle,
Fleischmann and Mugel and was instrumental in negotiating the merger
of the then-private University of Buffalo into the state university
system.
	Jaeckle was a state and national leader of the Republican
party in the 1940s and '50s. He served as Erie County Republican Party
chairman, then as state party chair when Thomas E. Dewey was elected
governor. "He once explained to me," recalled Gardner, "how Dewey
would have beaten Truman if he had just shaved off that darn
mustache."