[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 107 (Monday, July 18, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4639-S4640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING DAVID GETCHES

 Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, a few days ago, I came 
to the Senate floor to honor one of Colorado's great educators and 
community leaders, David Getches, who passed away on Tuesday, July 5, 
2011, at the too-young age of 68. Today, I would like to add further to 
my earlier remarks so that I may provide an even fuller picture of 
David's life.
  This is more than a poignant moment for me. I originally had planned 
to come to the floor to discuss David's career and character because he 
was stepping down after 8 very productive years as the dean of the 
University of Colorado Law School.
  We all have had this terrible experience in our lives when somebody 
whom we love and respect suddenly finds they have a cancer that is 
aggressive--beyond aggressive. Literally a month ago, David was 
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In the 4 weeks since that time, that 
cancer stole him from us. But he was always upbeat. He was always 
someone who we looked to for enthusiasm and inspiration. I will be 
inspired in my remarks by what he did. I will attempt not to dwell on 
his loss.
  As I said, David served as dean of the Colorado Law School for the 
last 8 years. With him at the helm, CU Law became one of the most 
forward-looking institutions of legal training in the country. I want 
to share a few examples of his vision and leadership. I could not cover 
all of them if I had a full hour. I want to share some of them with the 
Senate and with his friends and admirers in Colorado.
  He steered the law school through the construction of the new LEED 
Gold Certified Wolf Law Building, which put CU and its law school at 
the cutting edge of environmental sustainability and energy 
efficiency--two ideas that were connected to the values that David was 
committed to fostering throughout his career. David previously served 
as executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources 
and as an adviser to the Interior Secretary in the Clinton 
administration. He had an extensive background in water, environmental, 
and public lands law. Through his work, David impressed upon all 
Coloradans the importance of good stewardship of our State's precious 
natural resources.
  I am not a lawyer, but I do know David's efforts to teach and share 
the legal framework that protects our resources could not have been 
more critical to preserving our Western way of life.
  David left a lasting impression on the demographic composition of CU 
Law School. He was committed to a student body composed of people from 
many different backgrounds and cultures, and that commitment made an 
indelible impact on the school and on Colorado's legal community. In 
2008, the Hispanic Bar Association awarded him their Community Service 
Award for increasing Hispanic enrollment, and he also assembled one of 
the most diverse administrative teams of any law school in the country. 
He didn't stop there, however. He then created a commission to produce 
a groundbreaking report on diversity in the legal profession and how to 
increase diversity in law firm recruitment. The highly skilled and 
diverse alumni of the CU Law School reflect his efforts and successes.
  Moreover, David built a legacy of access to legal education for all. 
He worked to expand scholarships and financial aid awarded by the law 
school to worthy students regardless of their financial background, 
increasing scholarship awards from $600,000 in 2004 to a hefty $2.1 
million in 3 short years by 2007. This came during a period of time 
where David expanded alumni giving and oversaw a 110-percent increase 
in the law school's endowment. And all the while, he continued to 
recruit and retain top-notch faculty to guide students in their legal 
education and produce world-class scholarship.
  In 2008, David worked with the Colorado State Legislature to pass a 
law allowing public universities to offer loan repayment assistance 
grants to graduates practicing public interest law and more recently 
founded an endowment to award grants to CU Law School graduates in the 
public sector. These actions reflected David's strong belief in 
training and inspiring future leaders to give back to their 
communities.
  What David did by reducing the cost of law school was make public 
service a viable alternative to private practice for bright, idealistic 
graduates of the law school. Without question, those students, CU Law 
School, the State of Colorado, and I would venture to say the country 
will reap the benefits in the future from David's foresight and 
thoughtful investments.
  David's contributions went beyond his tenure as dean, and he had more 
than an academic interest in the critical issues of our time, 
especially environmental protection, civil rights, and social justice. 
He put his social and conservation ethics to work every day, using the 
law to foster a fair and livable world. As a very young attorney with 
California Indian Legal Services, David represented tribal members in 
the State of Washington who were being arrested for exercising their 
centuries-old treaty rights to fish. David, alongside his clients, 
devised a strategy to breathe life into the legal promises made to 
tribes, and the results he achieved changed the face of fisheries and 
water management in the Northwest. His legal work helped create modern 
Indian law and will have an everlasting imprint on natural resources 
management in the Northwest. He later became the founding executive 
director of the Native American Rights Fund, the leading nonprofit 
organization dedicated to tribal sovereignty, economic self-
determination, and defense of treaty rights.
  David was passionate about protection of the environment, especially 
the spectacular landscapes, wild country, and treasured wildlife of the 
West. As a water law expert, David was visionary with respect to the 
changing needs of the West. He had a particular devotion to the 
Colorado River Basin and strove to find ways to meet human demands for 
the river's waters while conserving its fish and wildlife and other 
environmental values. He expressed his love for the West through 
service on the boards of directors of the Grand Canyon Trust, the 
Wilderness Society, and Defenders of Wildlife. He was the founding 
board chair of the Land and Water Fund of the Rockies, now called 
Western Resource Advocates, and helped grow that fledgling organization 
into an important regional voice for clean energy and wise stewardship 
of the region's lands and waters. He gave his time, energy, and 
thoughtful creativity to each organization and all have expressed 
gratitude for his wise counsel.

[[Page S4640]]

  It is also worth noting that even the vast expanse of the Western 
United States could not contain David. He even taught himself Spanish 
and published papers and books in that language, influencing water and 
natural resources legal developments in Central and South America.
  I cannot help but feel that David was the living expression of the 
best of our ideals, a man of character and kindness, a modest but 
tireless achiever who preferred to be measured by his work, not by the 
accolades awarded by others. We were honored by his friendship and 
blessed by his many gifts.
  At the heart of why I wanted to come to the floor today is that I 
think we know we can all learn from David's passion for giving back to 
whatever community in which he found himself. He led a life of service, 
and he also compiled an impressive academic record as well as serving 
as the dean of CU Law School. David cared about justice for 
disenfranchised communities just as strongly as he cared about the 
long-term health and sustainability of our natural resources. To David, 
these matters were intertwined. He was, at his core, committed to the 
future of his children, our children, our grandchildren, and his 
grandchildren, and he had a deep love for the Rocky Mountain Western 
way of life. He was an avid outdoorsman, he was fit, and he faced any 
and all physical challenges just like he faced intellectual and 
emotional challenges. As I said in the beginning of my remarks, he was 
a mentor to all of us, and he always had his eye on the future. I know, 
as painful as it is for all of us who knew him to lose him so suddenly, 
he would want us to be focused on the future.
  David did this and much more for Colorado and our country, and I just 
want to close with this. We have lost a unique man and a towering 
Colorado figure.

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