The Fordham Flash

The 2004 Honoree was John D. Feerick, former Dean of Fordham University Law School. There's his portrait beneath Trey Sandusky, moved from the other room for the occasion. That portrait means he was also president of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, this ordering of the words creating the memorable acronym, ABCNY, and the honoring were members of the ABCNY Entertainment Committee. This event received detailed coverage in the Brooklyn Eagle, a newspaper around long enough to have fired Walt Whitman, sending him back to Huntington, or to New Orleans? I don't know.

Friday, January 9th, 2004. One Night Only. The Fordham Flash.

"Judges and attorneys take to the stage tonight to sing and act and make merry with the ABCNY's 45th Biennial 12th Night Roast, The Fordham Flash.

"Who, you may ask, is Flash? None other than John D. Feerick....

"The Roast has honored such legal luminaries as former Mayors Rudolph Giulliani and Ed Koch, New York State Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye, Appellate Judge Betty Elerin, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

"But sources say the dean's exemplary life challenged this year's roasters.

"He's a man with a very good record," said Peter DeSosa, Esq., a veteran songwriter for the Association and theater director of the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center in Brooklyn. He drafted musical verses recognizing Feerick's commitment to public service at Fordham.

"Bonnie Beth Greenball (one-time director of the Brooklyn Bar Association's Volunteer Lawyers Project) sill sing DeSosa's ditty, "The Dean is On Our Side." According to DeSosa, the Dean urges a law student (Greenball) to be guided by her conscience, while Greenball feels guided by market forces.

Many paragraphs followed.

On January 30th there was an impenetrably detailed full-page spread, with pictures, summarizing every incident of the event.