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School of Law at the University of Texas, where he was elected to the Board of Editors of the Texas Law Review and the Order of the Coif. John was an accomplished trial lawyer but his greatest joy was observing the success of the many young lawyers he mentored. John married Sara Ann Swindell in 1963; he is survived by Sara and by their three children and six grandchildren. John wrote a book for his grandchildren, Steps Along The Way. Past President Rodney Acker’s favorite line from the book is “We are, of course, all going to die. Nobody gets out of this place alive. The question in many people’s minds is when and for others it is how. I think that the bet- ter question is how are we going to face our mortality.” Rodney fondly recalls that John got it right. Melvin R. Goldman, ’93, passed away on January 11, 2023 at the age of eighty-six in the company of his fam- ily and a box of his favorite cigars he spent the last year looking at but never smoking. Mel was born and raised in Chicago. He was a graduate of DePaul University in 1958 and Northwestern University School of Law in 1961. He went on to Stanford for an L.L.M., where he met Bonnie, a Stanford undergrad, for whom he gave up Chicago and moved to San Francisco, and to whom he would be married for fifty-nine years. Mel special- ized in securities litigation and antitrust litigation, an area in which he quickly became a national expert. But Mel was first and foremost a family man. Mel was an avid 49ers and Stanford football fan, the former of which brought him great joy in the last several years. David Connolly Grant, ’09, passed away at home on March 15, 2023 at the age of seventy-five survived by his wife Robyn, two children and a grandson. Dave was a storyteller, a jokester, a riddler, a golfer, a sportsman, a lawyer, a gentleman, a scholar, and, most of all, a fox- hole buddy. Dave grew up in Los Angeles and followed in his father’s footsteps to travel across the country to attend Colgate University in upstate New York, where he developed an endless love of all things Colgate (ex- cept the cold). Dave then attended Loyola Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Re- view. Dave was a huge sports enthusiast. He played rug- by in college, and he would watch any game or match he could get his hands on. He was an expert skier. But Dave’s most treasured hobby was golf; Dave and his family traveled to Hawaii to play in the Mauna Kea Pro Am for over forty straight years, a treasured ritual with friends turned family. Daniel W. Hammer, ’82, a native of Cleveland and long- time resident of Amelia Island, passed away on October 12, 2022 just shy of his ninetieth birthday. Dan was pre- deceased by his wife Anne and a son, and survived by two other children and six grandchildren. Dan was known as a man with a heart of gold who touched many lives over the years. He loved his family and his dog Cooper. Justice Jack Wilson Holt Jr., ’84, who served his state as chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court and his nation in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve, earning the rank of colonel, died March 5, 2023 at his home near Little Rock at the age of ninety-three. Jack came from a family of lawyers and judges, including two other Arkan- sas Supreme Court justices. Jack received a law degree at the University of Arkansas School of Law at Fayetteville in 1952 and joined the Air Force during the Korean War. He returned from active duty and worked for his uncle J. Frank Holt as a prosecutor. Jack was chief assistant attor- ney general in 1962 when his uncle resigned as the AG to become a justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court. In 1966, while helping run his uncle’s campaign for gover- nor, Jack befriended a college student who was working on the campaign; impressed by him, Jack arranged for the young man to serve a Capitol Hill internship with Senator J. William Fulbright, helping to launch a polit- ical career that culminated in Bill Clinton’s presidency. In 1984, Jack was elected Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court with fifty-nine percent of the vote. As Chief, Jack worked for three amendments to the state constitution that increased the civil jurisdiction of mu- nicipal courts to give litigants easy access to the court to resolve small monetary claims, created a system of juve- nile courts and took juvenile matters away from coun- ty judges, and created a system for disciplining and re- moving judges for ethical misbehavior and for replacing judges who become physically or mentally disabled. After retiring in 1995, Jack campaigned for another constitu- tional amendment that reformed and reorganized trial and appellate courts, prohibiting partisanship in seek- ing and holding judicial offices. Jack loved the outdoors, whether hunting, fishing, admiring dogs, deer, and birds, sitting around swapping stories with old pals, or enjoying the farm he shared with his wife, artist Jane Dees Lovett Holt, whose portrait of Jack hangs in the Supreme Court building. In addition to Jane, Jack’s survivors include three children and five grandchildren. 97 JOURNAL