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Professor Emeritus Walter Dellinger was a “protector of American democracy” who walked the halls of power yet never lost his common touch, President Joe Biden told more than 500 viewers of a virtual memorial celebration Saturday for Dellinger and his wife Anne Maxwell Dellinger ’73.

“Walter could argue constitutional law with the best of the best and still walk among the people as a fellow traveler on the journey of the history of America,” Biden said in a video message. “He was the kind of American our founders imagined we would have leading us toward a more perfect union.”

Dellinger, the Douglas B. Maggs Professor Emeritus of Law, died Feb. 16. Anne Dellinger, a longtime faculty member at the UNC School of Government, died April 21, 2021. The virtual event, featuring recorded video tributes by family, friends, and colleagues from the breadth of his life and career, was co-hosted by Duke Law School and O’Melveny & Myers, where Dellinger was a partner.

The couple's sons Drew and Hampton Dellinger opened and closed the event, which included remembrances by a long list of public figures, including former president Bill Clinton, under whom Dellinger served as acting solicitor general and led the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice; former vice president Al Gore; Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan; Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar; White House Counsel Dana Remus; Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco; Pamela Harris, Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; Sri Srinivasan, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; former solicitors general Seth Waxman and Don Verrilli; political consultant James Carville; and journalists Dahlia Lithwick, Al Hunt, and Chris Hayes.

Personal memories also were shared by James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke Dean Kerry Abrams; John S. Bradway Professor of the Practice of Law James E. Coleman, Jr.; Lanty L. Smith ’67 Professor of Law Joseph Blocher; and Christopher Schroeder, the Charles S. Murphy Professor Emeritus of Law and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy. Schroeder succeeded Dellinger at the Office of Legal Counsel during the Clinton administration and currently is serving in that role again as assistant attorney general.

“Walter was one of the most astonishingly brilliant, compassionate, and optimistic people to have ever walked this earth,” Abrams said. “He did more for the rule of law, the civil rights of individual people, and the well-being of his fellow humans in any one year of his life than most people do in a lifetime. But despite his brilliance and accomplishments he was genuine, humble, and helpful to people in all aspects of his life.”

“The Java House Gang,” a dozen longtime friends from the Dellingers’ favorite coffee shop in Washington, D.C., recalled attending baseball games and Broadway shows with the couple over the years and hashing over the latest political gossip and top-level legal developments. As Anne’s health began to decline, they said, Dellinger threw himself into caretaking.

“What we saw was his gentleness, his creativity, his humor and love, without complaint. We won’t just miss Anne and Walter. We will be talking about them for years to come. They will continue to inspire us and to enrich our lives.”

Hugh and Judy Tilson, friends from Carolina Meadows, the community near Chapel Hill where the Dellingers spent their last years, also shared personal anecdotes. Judy Tilson recounted meeting her soon-to-be neighbor when she stepped outside in a dressing gown to see who was looking at the house across the street. “Walter’s reaction was, ‘Anybody who can appear on the street in a bathrobe, that’s the place that I want to live,’” she said.

Hugh Tilson said that during the pandemic Dellinger was a regular at their socially-distanced cocktail hours. “On his evening walks he would always stop by every night we entertained. So we started setting up a seventh chair just for Walter, because you could always count on him to show up. Now, of course, Walter doesn’t come anymore. But we still set up that seventh chair. Just in case.”

And a longtime café attendant at Carolina Meadows remembered how on his daily visits Dellinger would ride up on his bike, dance his way to the counter, and wrap her in a warm embrace.

“I really love him and that is going to be missed for the longest,” Yolanda Mora said. “It’s that kind of connection that we had. It’s just absolutely precious. I feel so happy that I was involved in his life in any way.”

Following are excerpts from some of the tributes. The memorial celebration can be viewed in its entirety here.

President Joe Biden

“I knew Walter for more than 40 years, going back to the Supreme Court nominations when I was first elected to the United States Senate. He was there throughout the 2020 election advising me and my campaign how to protect the integrity of the election from the gathering threats. It’s not hyperbole to say Walter was the protector of American democracy. A prodigious intellect, a master of the law, and above all had a big heart.

“Walter could argue constitutional law with the best of the best and still walk among the people as a fellow traveler on the journey of the history of America. He was the kind of American our founders imagined we would have leading us toward a more perfect union. He understood that democracy could be complicated and messy but necessary and our best hope on earth. That its institutions must work to deliver for the people, all the institutions at the same time.

“And he knew that to live the good life was the matter of a thousand little things that built character. Not one thing. A thousand little things. The belief that everybody’s your equal. A head to know the difference between knowledge and judgment, and the heart to know what truly meaningful and what’s ephemeral. We all felt it in every piece of counsel he provided me and others. But we know that big heart belonged always, always to his family. May God bless Walter and may he and Anne continue to inspire us all.”

Former President Bill Clinton

“I’m honored to join you in remembering and celebrating the life of Walter Dellinger. He did a fabulous job in my administration, from being part of the transition and helping me pick a new attorney general and a lot of judges. He led the Office of Legal Counsel with great distinction, and was amazing as solicitor general. I’ll never forget the argument he made against the Texas sodomy law. It was just one example of how a man with a brilliant mind and a caring heart could use the power of law and the promise of American equality to advance the lives of all of us. And to all of you, his family, his friends, all of you whose lives were touched, especially all the students that he taught so well, we can only hope to carry on his legacy.”

Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan

“What most strikes me thinking about Walter today are two things. The first is that he was supremely generous to people. He was almost always the most brilliant person in the room, and almost always the most accomplished person in the room. And yet every time he dealt with other people, it was the other people that came away thinking that they were brilliant, and that they had thought up the ideas that in fact were his. He knew how to give credit to people and it wasn’t strategic for him. That’s just the way he treated people. He gave them credit even when he deserved it, and he made people feel ten feet tall.

“He saw the world clearly. He was not starry-eyed. He was a realist in a lot of ways. And yet he managed to be incredibly hopeful about the future. And I find that combination is really rare. He saw the world clearly but I guess he really believed deep in his soul that the arc of history bends toward justice, bends toward improvement and good things. And that’s what he believed and that’s what he spent his life helping to make happen. ... We need those kinds of clear-eyed optimists more than ever.”

James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke Dean Kerry Abrams

“A person of his myriad accomplishments could have developed a very swollen head indeed. Instead Walter was constantly making other people’s lives better and offering his friendship and so forth.

“Since his death my inbox has been filled with memories of Walter that mirror my own experience. I’ve heard from many former law deans who have the same story to tell, the support and encouragement, the sage advice that Walter gave them. I’ve heard from faculty, many of whom credit Walter with launching their academic careers or their careers as lawyers. And I’ve heard from alumni who remember Walter’s extraordinary intellectual gifts, his generous spirit, and his wicked sense of humor. Walter had the gift for touching each individual life and making each person feel incredibly important, worthy, and needed.”

John S. Bradway Professor of the Practice of Law James E. Coleman, Jr.

“When I got to Duke, Walter and a group of us started an exercise group. We called ourselves 'The Clydesdales' – for obvious reasons if you saw us running around the golf course. But the real reason we showed up twice a week and then once on the weekend was to hear Walter tell stories about growing up in Charlotte, teaching in Mississippi, and intrigue in Washington, D.C. We would rumble around the track slowly until we came to a tall hill near the end of the run, at which point Walter would break away from the group, throw his arms up in the air like Rocky, and rumble down the hill saying, ‘Gravity is our friend. Gravity is our friend.’ He brought light and laughter into our lives. Any occasion with him was a seminar. We will miss Walter and Anne very much."

Lanty L. Smith ’67 Professor of Law Joseph Blocher

“I had the remarkable good fortune to call Walter my mentor as well as boss, colleague, and friend. One of the most incredible things about his legacy is his dedication to helping others succeed, especially those who might otherwise have been excluded from the institutions whose doors Walter held open through his combination of brilliance, generosity, and fundamental human decency. He was a model for all of us in how a person could be so steeped in the details and intricacies of law and history and yet so connected to the people and the world around him.

“I was working for Walter at O’Melveny and Myers the day that Bo Diddley died and Walter called a bunch of us young associates into his office to deliver an impromptu lecture about the development and significance of the Bo Diddley beat. And I think about that often and what it says about Walter. He was a person who always knew the lyrics, whether it was a song, or the Constitution, or Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. But he was also a person who was attuned to the beat, to the background rhythm of lived experience. And so much of his work is dedicated to making the words – words like equal protection and due process – fit with that rhythm. ... I know I’m not alone in saying that Walter Dellinger was my hero.”

Christopher Schroeder
Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel
Charles S. Murphy Professor Emeritus of Law and Professor Emeritus of Public Policy

“My wife Kate [Katharine T. Bartlett, the A. Kenneth Pye Professor of Law] and I cherish the years in which we were colleagues with Walter at Duke Law School. But having Walter on any faculty was a little bit like hiding a lantern under a bushel – too sedentary and solitary for Walter’s full talents to flourish.

“He loved the Office of Legal Counsel because he could work on six to eight big issues a day, not for months and months on one law review article in the quiet of his office. He was in his element at OLC. Walter was also a master team-builder and motivator. And OLC is decidedly a team sport. He assembled an amazing array of talent to work with him, then he supported them and promoted them and got their best work out of them. And all of us, including me, felt affirmed and valued because of Walter. We then watched as he moved effortlessly between those who provided him advice and those whom he advised – the president, the attorney general, and the top lawyers throughout the executive branch, providing them wise counsel, sometimes even telling them the same jokes and stories he had tried out on us.

“Despite his many further successes after he left OLC, Walter never lost his love of the Office. The last of his return visits to the Office occurred just three weeks before he died. He regaled the Office with his stories and imparted some of his wisdom as only Walter could. Many of the attorney-advisors commented on what an inspiring visit it was, and how special Walter was. But with Walter it was always a two-way street. Just the Saturday before he died, he told me how inspired and energized he had been by the visit. When we learned of Walter’s death I emailed the entire Office and simply said, ‘The Office of Legal Counsel has lost a sterling former head and a lifelong friend of the Office and its employees.’ To that I would only add that I and so many of us have lost dear, dear friends with Anne and Walter’s passing. Our lives are immeasurably enriched for having known them.”

Sri Srinivasan
Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit

“How could you not want to be in Walter’s ambit? The joy, the laughter, the brilliance, the optimism, the camaraderie, the great friends of his who then became great friends of yours, all made the days with Walter the very best kind of days.

“Walter could see possibilities in you that you didn’t see in yourself. And then he invested himself completely and utterly selflessly in trying to turn those possibilities into realities. I’ve come to think of that aspect of Walter’s friendship as bestowing ‘Walter wings.’ And with them you felt like you could explore places that you might not have otherwise imagined while blanketed with an intensity of support that was profoundly uplifting and reassuring.”

Jill Dash ’00
Vice President of Strategic Engagement, American Constitution Society

“Whether he was sharing his impassioned concerns about reproductive justice–urged on, of course, by his dear wife Anne–whether he was recounting a story about his experiences with racism growing up in the South, moderating a conversation about doing justice with his mentees now on the bench, or teaching a group of second-graders about the Constitution, we at ACS have long marveled at his ability to engage any audience. It’s why we turned to him again and again to sharpen our thinking on the issues of the day, to react to what was coming out of the Supreme Court, to create a strategic plan to how best to deploy the law to do justice, and to reflect on where we go next.

“He has led so many of us – lawyers, students, judges policy-makers – in so many righteous fights. It’s hard to know what the path forward looks like without him lighting the way. But of course we will forge on in his honor, inspired by the example he set.”