In August, the estate of Rita Ennella Fordham, widow of Jefferson B. Fordham, former University of Pennsylvania Law School dean and University of Utah Distinguished University Professor of Law, made generous gifts of more than $2.2 million to the U’s S.J. Quinney College of Law.
The gifts include more than $2 million to establish and fund the Jefferson B. and Rita E. Fordham Presidential Dean’s Chair. Another $100,000 will increase the endowment of the Fordham Loan Forgiveness Program, which is used to help law school graduates who are employed in the public sector repay their student loans. Another $130,000 will endow the college’s annual Fordham Debate program, now in its 31st year, which continues to address relevant contemporary public policy and legal issues.
Rita Fordham’s association with the College of Law began in 1957 when she was hired as the administrative assistant to law dean Daniel Dykstra. She managed the dean’s office, maintained the law school’s records, and supported a demanding faculty. In the summer of 1963 she met Jefferson B. Fordham when he was a visiting professor. They were married on March 21, 1964, and lived in Philadelphia until Jeff completed his deanship at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. In 1970 Rita and Jeff returned to Salt Lake City and the U, where Jeff began his 19-year tenure as Distinguished University Professor of Law. Jeff died in 1994.
At a celebration of Rita’s life held at the law school on August 18, James Holbrook, clinical professor of law and the Fordham Estate’s personal representative, announced the gifts and noted that, given the Fordhams’s long association with the University and their love and loyalty for the College of Law, an endowed dean’s chair in their name is a wonderful perpetual legacy.
“Rita was a lady through and through,” says her friend, Karen McLeese, former law school development director. “She was smart, well-read, and headstrong—commanding, generous, and always a devoted friend.” Rita was known for her keen eye for original art. She enjoyed playing golf and drove a red Mercedes, which, according to Karen, fit her personality to a T. “She was bright and had a ferocious love of knowledge and current events,” says Karen. “She had a wonderful curiosity about life in general, and was a genuine philanthropist.”
Rita was born in 1916 in Astoria, New York, the youngest of nine children. She attended City College of New York and lived in Idaho before moving to Utah. She died in December 2013.
