Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Thank you so much. Thank you, Richard. Now, this is a surprising and daunting effort for me. I'm just an unemployed cowgirl at present. And so there's little chance that I'll be able to state for you, oh, the meaning of life.

58 years ago, I graduated from this wonderful university. There were good many times during my years here, and that I attended services at this magnificent Stanford chapel. But I never expected to speak from this podium. And we're gathered here this evening to remember and honor a Stanford professor who played a pivotal role in my life, and I think that of many others, the late Harry Rathbun.

As you heard, I grew up on a family cattle ranch in an arid and remote part of southern Arizona and New Mexico. It was about 35 miles from the nearest town. My early companions were my parents, and five or six cowboys. My parents liked to read, so books also became my companions at the ranch. We were ranchers, we didn't know lawyers and judges. My father had wanted to attend Stanford. But when he graduated from high school, his parents died soon after. And he was sent out to the Lazy B ranch to keep things going until his parents' estate could be settled. That took close to 20 years. And he never left the Lazy B ranch. He never attended Stanford.

I probably thought about Stanford because of my father's admiration for it. I was sent away to El Paso, Texas to go to grade school and high school. I lived with my maternal grandmother. The only university to which I applied in my senior year in high school, in 1946, was Stanford. With a lot of luck, I was accepted here. My parents drove me from the ranch to Stanford. On reaching Palo Alto, I think we spent the night in the old President Hotel. It's still there on University Avenue. We drove down Palm Drive the next day to the quad, and I was overcome with the beauty of this place. It was a far cry indeed from the dry open, arid, Lazy B ranch and El Paso, Texas. I was assigned to live in Branner Hall, which had previously been a men's dormitory.

My freshman corridor's classmates became my close and my lifelong friends. Two of those women are here tonight. After taking required courses my freshman year, I moved towards a major in economics and finished my required classes for a degree in econ in three years. One class I took in my junior year was an undergraduate class in law, taught by Professor Harry Rathbun. He was the most inspiring teacher I had ever had. He was exceedingly kind, thoughtful, and articulate. I heard that he also welcomed students at some seminars at his home, where he talked about how the individual can make a difference in this big, complex world in which we live.

I'm as soon as other students did, as he explained how a dedicated person could work toward a goal and accomplish amazing things. He said if we wanted to tackle an issue and work toward constructive change, we could actually achieve many things. He himself was a volunteer in various projects. One of them was called Beyond War.

Our nation had used the atomic bomb a few years before in World War Two. Harry Rathbun and many others were very concerned about the dangers of nuclear bombs in our troubled world. He quoted Professor Sorokin of Harvard that we were in the greatest crisis mankind had ever faced. He quoted Albert Einstein, who said, "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe." He quoted a Fortune magazine article of January 1946: "The crisis in which man finds himself his spiritual. It will be surmounted by the reaffirmation of spiritual values." Also Professor Rathbun quoted Arnold Toynbee, the British historian, who said, "The only hope for our civilization is I'm a tour religion, capable of uniting man with himself, his God and his world with such effectiveness that the old fissures will dissolve."

Professor Rathbun believed that we needed to have a more realistic appreciation of our interrelatedness with all people, more unselfishness and a deeper understanding among men. I think he included women, too. Now, he thought we needed to educate substantial numbers of individuals to bring about our change in society, to enable us to achieve the capacity to surmount the challenges. He did his best to educate the talented students at Stanford to confront those massive problems and to bring about a change. I was one of those young students who listened to Harry Rathbun. His impressive knowledge, his manner, and his mind impressed me greatly. I thought one reason he was so effective was his legal training and his logic. Because of Professor Rathbun's effect on me, I decided to apply to Stanford Law School for early admission. If accepted, I would then apply my first year law credits to my undergraduate degree. I still had to do three years of law school.

To my surprise, I was accepted at the law school. I had no understanding then about the almost total lack of opportunities for women in the legal profession. Had I realized how hard it would be to get a job as a woman lawyer, I might have chosen another path, but I didn't know that. And I also did not know if I would enjoy studying law. My law school classmates were overwhelmingly male. Most were returning soldiers and sailors from World War Two. They were a little older, and many had had exceedingly tough and dangerous assignments during the war. There were four women in my class. Most law schools then either accepted no women at all, or like Stanford, had only a handful.

Law school was a great experience. It taught an effective method at the end. Analyzing problems and issues. It was unlike any previous classes or study in my experience. I liked it very much, and I wanted to complete my legal studies. I did not have another class with Professor Rathbun, but I saw him a few times. His niece, who's here tonight, was one of my close freshman class friends. And in preparation for speaking here at Memorial Chapel today, I reviewed a few of the speeches that Harry Rathbun made during his years at Stanford. He pointed a way for us to view the world around us and our role in trying to improve it. In reading them, many of the impressions he made on me flooded back.

He reminded us that biologists tell us it has taken something like a billion years for man to evolve from that initial single-celled organism. And that man's recorded history is only 10,000 years long. He reminded us that mankind has developed powers of perception, memory, feeling, reason, the power to deal with intangibles and ideas, which differentiates us from all other living organisms. That humans have developed the capacity to transmit accumulated knowledge by education. He told us that education enables us to continue on our evolutionary path. He hoped that we students would maintain an intellectual curiosity, that we would always honestly and passionately pursue the truth, fearlessly and rematching honestly. He hoped that at Stanford we would develop intellectually and attain maturity here. He enjoyed reciting Rudyard Kipling, this wonderful poem. And that poem reads in part, I'm sure you remember it:

If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

...

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Harry Rathbun reminded us that freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. That all people are brothers and sisters, and it is truly one world. The universal questions that we humans ask ourselves are, "What am I? Who am I? And where am I going?" These are religious questions. To quote Harry Rathbun, "Everyone has a religion whether he knows that or not."

Religion has historically been concerned with people's views and attitudes about themselves, about the world in which we live, and about what we have to do to survive and have meaning in our lives. To build a sound religion or philosophy of life, we need to take account of all relevant knowledge and wisdom about the nature of man, the nature of our environment, and those relationships between us and our environment over which we have some control. Harry Rathbun believed all science is based on the idea that there is order in the universe, and it is discoverable by us with honesty and patience. He thought each of us has a religion, whether we know it or acknowledge it or not. It is that by which we live, and by which we make our decisions. It is our effort to come to terms with our total environment for living. His religion was a realistic one, and he thought that his humankind matured and learned more about the universe. Our religious beliefs matured as well. And they become closer to the perception of things as they are.

Yes, a billion years and development from a single cell is a success story. But the story is by no means indeed. Harry Rathbun said wisdom is a product of mature religion. Conversely, mature religion is also a product of wisdom. He reminded us that we have, as humans, some built-in human drives. First, our drive for self-preservation. Second, the drive to reproduce ourselves. And third, the more subtle drive to evolve to realize our maximum potential. It's this last one that leads us more often astray. For instance, it could mean earning more money than our peers or getting our second SUV or a second home. Now, if those are our dominant goals, then maybe we're misreading our road signs and directions.

Achieving our potential to the maximum, for Harry Rathbun and I must say for me, also, means taking seriously the concept that we made in an orderly universe and that we must obey nature's order, including being loyal and devoted to God. When Jesus of Nazareth was asked, "What was the most important thing?" He said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind and with all thy strength." The second commandment, Jesus said, was, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Ashley Montague, the anthropologist said, "To love thy neighbor as thyself is not merely good text material for Sunday morning sermons. It is absolutely sound biology." In other words, mankind has evolved by cooperation and by love of one another. Our life goals and activities should reflect that concept and guide our actions.

These thoughts derived from Harry Rathbun's long and inspired life have helped me for the last 60 years of my life. Maybe they will touch your own thoughts and reflections, indeed your own actions, in the future. It's been a long time since I listened to Harry Rathbun. But his thoughts, his words, his views have stayed with me and have influenced my own beliefs and my life in various ways. As I grew up on the Lazy B so far from town, we didn't go to church on a regular basis, it was too far to drive. And my parents didn't find the small churches in the nearby towns satisfying from their perspective. What we did experience was constant evidence of the size of our universe, the incredible array of planets and stars, the Milky Way in the night sky, which you can see when there are no lights nearby in cities.

The laws of nature affect every living thing around us. Everything pointed to a grand design and to an ordered universe, a sense of unwritten principles of biology, of astronomy, of life in all its forms. Some call it Mother Nature. We call that God: the magnificent cloud formations in an otherwise clear blue sky, taking colors as the sun came up, and in the evening when the sun set. Some call that sunrises and sunsets. We and others called it God. The miracle at times of rain on our parched, semi-arid desert land. With dark rain clouds gathering, with bolts of lightning, ear-shattering thunder and heavy rain coming in sheets, then tapering off, moving alone. And on the horizon, in time, a magnificent rainbow arching down at each end. Some call it just that a rainstorm. We and others call it evidence of God's work, and we thank him for it the newborn calves and the coats with soft hair and wobbly legs. The wild flowers, the poppies in the spring, covering the rocky hillsides to create a golden color. Some call it just springtime. We call them blessings from God.

Then there were the hard times: the endless drought, month after month without rain, cattle starving to death, the family ranch struggling to survive. All of us stealing the summer heat without relief and the lack of money to keep things going. Some might call it consecration. Others called it now that I'm here at Stanford, and remembering Harry Rathbun. But it seems to me that my family and I were seeking to explain our lives and our surroundings in ways not unlike Harry Rathbun might have done. My own views are not sophisticated. They're molded from time spent trying to eke out an agricultural living in a dry environment, and trying to explain why things we could not change were the way they were. At the same time, we tried to live useful, caring, and productive lives, helping relatives, friends and neighbors, and somehow trying to reach our potential.

Stanford played a very important role in my life, as it probably is, and always will in your own lives. Thank you for listening tonight. I'm not likely to have another audience from a politic. So I want to leave you with the wise words of John Wesley, another great man. He said:

"Do all the good that you can, by all means that you can, in all the ways that you can, in all the places that you can, at all times that you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."

If you can follow that advice, I think not only John Wesley, but also Harry Rathbun, would be pleased. Thank you

Host
Justice O'Connor has kindly agreed to take questions from you here in the audience. And there are two microphones. I'm looking for them here. Can I get a hand as to where they are? Yeah, we're also wondering if we can get some lights near those microphones so we can, okay. And we're also wondering whether we can get we can see you a little better from from down there.

You can see us well, but we just see darkness out there, we'll try to get a little bit more light. And we encourage you to go to those microphones. Justice O'Connor will come back to the podium here. I ask you to limit yourselves to questions rather than statements. And make them brief and succinct if you can. I also encourage you to stay on the topic of the evening, on exploring what leads to a meaningful life, rather than questions about the inner workings of the Supreme Court, or about the current political climate in Washington, and other matters. So let's begin with questions on this side, please.

Student
Hi, hi. My girlfriend is the last day and she sent me here to ask you a question about how to not only be a good lawyer in the sense of, you know, successful professionally, but also an ethical lawyer.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Yes. Thanks. All right. Well, that's a good question. As I look around and reflect on things like the Enron crisis, and the fact that even map large company was relying on legal advice and accountants advice to do what they did that had such drastic results for the investors, stockholders and employees. It makes one wonder what kind of ethical standards the lawyers and the accountants were following. And it's clear, I think, that it isn't enough to do one's work as a lawyer or accountant or other professional by saying, oh, technically the law could be interpreted to allow this. We have a deeper obligation as lawyers, as human beings to reflect on what it is we're being asked to do and put it in a larger perspective and ask ourselves if it is the right thing to do. Many times it isn't. And we have to have the courage and the strength to acknowledge that and not to give advice that can be seen as unlawful or unhelpful in the long run, or unethical. Anybody else? Yes.

Audience Member
I was privileged to know Harry in the last roughly five years of his life, and he'd be the first to admit at least in those days that his wife family was a key part of his transformation. I'm curious from your perspective and in the time in their home, what role Amelia played. And if you have any comments on her role in this effect on your life.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
She obviously played a very strong role. I did not know her much, because the class I took was from Harry Rathbun. And when I talked to him at his home, it was really more with him than with her. But I know from others, that she played an incredibly important role. They were a team in a very real sense, and I understand she was a very remarkable and very direct sort of a person.

Student
You mentioned the biological basis for why we're here. You mentioned surviving and reproducing and personally evolving?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Yes.

Student
To what extent do those guide the way that we live?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Well, I don't know that those guide us, I think it's a fact of life. I think we have evolved, and I hope will continue to evolve to be better people in the future than we have been in the past. We've had a remarkable evolution, I think, from that single cell. And it tells us that the world has moved and is moving in different directions. We can see it with the climate, we can see it with ourselves. So we won't live long enough to see the consequences of bad but our our future progeny will at some point in time, and I think we just have to be aware that the world is All of us have evolved over time and are continuing to do so I hope in good ways.

Student
Justice O'Connor, you opened up several doors for women in the field of law. What offer what advice can you offer to people who are hoping to open up doors for other groups of people who might be underrepresented?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
I think you have to be sensitive to the problems that we continue to face in various areas and to discuss issues publicly in your classes, with friends with others, maybe to study about it, to write about it, to do work in that field as you progress and to try to be helpful in terms of achieving better understanding in areas that are still stressful for us with people. There's been all kinds of difficulties in recent years with relationships of gays and lesbians, for example. And that's an area that's still evolving. So you're going to have to be conscious of those issues as we go forward. And there are others. How do we treat aliens from other countries who are here illegally and living in our midst? How are we going to treat their children who were born here in the United States, but to parents who were not legally here? What are we going to do about these problems? And how are we going to handle it? There's so many areas that require our attention, our concern, and our thoughtful proposals for dealing with it. So maybe you can be part of that as we go forward. I hope you can. Okay.

Student
Hi, Justice O'Connor. I was wondering if your time at Stanford challenged or reinforced your preconceptions of the meaning of life before you entered college? And how did it happen?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Oh, I think it helped shape some I when I came here, I don't know that I had a very clear philosophy of life. I was pretty young, and I don't think I did. So it my years here helped shape that hairy rap and helped shape it. And the succeeding years have continued to do that. Perhaps all of us evolve ourselves over time. You probably are. And I know I have. Am I finished with that process? Probably not. I hope not. But we all have a way to go. I would think in our own personal lives and world

Student
Justice O'Connor, as you were one of the few women to actually attend Stanford, during your time here, what was the driving force that that made you want to succeed so badly to go and pursue justice?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
I don't know. I know that from my earliest years as a youngster, I knew I wanted to work. I expect him to work. It was always my hope and expectation. And as I matured a little bit, I wanted to work at some kind of work worth doing. work that I would be satisfied was helpful, in some way to humanity. And I've tried to do that. In my lifetime. I was not as much motivated by earning a good salary as I was by finding interesting and useful work to do. That worked for me. But it doesn't work for everyone, of course, and those with money and means can lead very useful lives by putting that money to work for others and make them do a world of good, too. Stanford wouldn't be the institution it is, had it not been for generous donors. So I'm not saying that's the only way to go. But for me, it was.

Student
This sort of follows up on that question, but I was just wondering, as a pioneer in your field, I'm sure you faced a lot of criticism from different angles. And I was wondering what motivated you just personally throughout your life to continue to persevere despite those obstacles?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Well, I think anyone who engages in public life has to get a very thick skin. If you're going to have arrows, and darts thrown at you, that's okay. Develop a thick skin and go on, you know, what you're doing is the right thing to do. Okay, nobody's free from criticism and shouldn't be, just learn to deal with it. You can.

Student
Hi, I'm Andrew. You talked a lot about how doing the right thing and helping out other people is not only the right thing to do, but just generally a smart idea. And I completely agree with you. But I was wondering, why is that the case? Why is the golden rule so golden? Like, why do you think so?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
I don't know. That's what I tried to suggest in my remarks. That was Jesus's instruction, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." And it's been affirmed by biologists that it's a pretty good rule of biology as well. And I'm satisfied with that as an answer. I think it has proven to be the right way to go both for personal satisfaction and for bettering the human race.

Student
Hi. I was wondering whether there was ever a moment at your time as an undergraduate, or law school, where looking back, you sort of wonder what would have happened if you had made a different decision, for example, the choice to attend law school?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Oh, yes. I mean, you can look back, but I guess, as a judge—and I was a judge in the state court before going on the Supreme Court—I made a decision early on that it's better in life to make a decision by studying it carefully, getting all the facts. You can think about it and consider all aspects of it. And then make a decision, and don't look back and try to second guess yourself. You're not going to be happy if you're constantly looking back and saying, "Oh my goodness, did I make the right decision?" Don't do that. Put all the effort in at the front, and study, and make a decision, and go on. You'll be happier if you do.

Student
Justice O'Connor, how do you recommend balancing family obligations and parenting with contributing to one's chosen field?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Well, it's hard. I wanted to have a family. And I'm glad that I did. Was it easy? No. Is it going to be easy for you ? No. Is it worth it? Yes.

Student
May it please the Court.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Okay. Going to start?

Student
Absolutely. How does that My name is KH, and I have a question. As you've mentioned, pursuing a rewarding career and rewarding life, looking back over your own life, what wisdom and advice do you give to individuals such as myself, a young woman interested in pursuing public service, especially when we come up against issues such as breaking new glass ceilings and forging new ground?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Well, you're going to have some challenges, but that's what makes it interesting. So forge ahead, find something, some work you can do. And then try to make that work even more interesting and challenging than your employer thought would be. Make something of it. You can do that. Several times in my life. I've had jobs that didn't look so good when I got up close. And I tried to make them better by doing some innovative things in that job and making making them better all around. You can probably do that, too.

Student
My question is kind of in a similar line, I was wondering if you could say a few words to those of us Stanford juniors, and especially seniors who don't necessarily have the next step figured out after Stanford and are kind of trying to figure out what's next.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Well, that's okay. You probably have started with your education in some direction or other. So get a job in that general area and see if you can't make something out of it. If you try and absolutely can't make it into an interesting job, then change. But chances are, you'll find a way to make whatever you choose to do a better opportunity and a better job than you thought it was initially. And see what you can do with it.

Student
Hi. When you were speaking about God, you used a lot of imagery about nature and feeling connected to animals and plants.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Yes.

Student
And you've also mentioned evolution in biology going from single cell to where we are today and continuing this evolution with education. I was wondering, as someone from this generation today with our evolution of education that's given us technology, and given us the computer and the internet, I actually feel more and more distanced from nature, every every day, basically, and I feel more distant from God, when I'm living in this world of technology. And I was wondering what you thought about the relationship between soil and concrete, and where God stands in either in that relationship?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
I personally think that's worrisome. I'm not as wedded to a computer as you are. It's young people who just get up in the morning and turn on a computer and work with it all day. And you're right, you don't go out in the forest and smell the trees and look at the flowers. We've become an urban society, and we've become a computerized society. And I think it makes it much more difficult to have a relationship with nature. I don't know what to tell you to do, except to tell you, "You better get outside now, man."

Student
Justice O'Connor, you spoke a lot about how your own personal religion has informed your sense of morality. And then therefore, of course, you know, your going to the Supreme Court.

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
I wouldn't say that.

Student
Sorry, then, well, that might be my question and then what my question is, then, to what extent do you believe that one's own personal religion should inform morality and therefore you know, one's course, and will?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
Well, I think it does govern our personal actions. Does it tell you what to do as a judge? No, because you take an oath to follow the laws and the Constitution, so help you God. And you ask God's help to help you follow the Constitution and the laws, not your own personal view. And so I think the two are compatible, but not in the way that you suggest. Over here.

Student
Justice O'Connor, can you please share with us one of your most rewarding experiences in terms of community service you performed that would be a good example to us?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
I worked early on with a little organization in south Phoenix that tried to teach some Hispanic young youngsters English, to enable them to attend school and get more out of school. And it was a small organization, but it was a hands-on sort of a relationship with those children. And I thought it was great. It was really a good thing to do. I admired it. I worked later with an organization that tried to enlist the help of farmers in the Phoenix area, who grew agricultural crops for consumption, lettuce, vegetables, and they often had a surplus of crops that was sold. And we tried to package those and get them distributed to people who needed food. And it was very satisfying to do something like that. I did a lot of work for the Salvation Army, and it tried to help people who had an addiction to alcohol or drugs. And I thought they did a pretty decent job of helping those people. And it was satisfying. I don't know, there are a million things you can do that matter and that help people, and you'll find them if you look. Okay, last question over here.

Student
Justice O'Connor, you've spoken a great deal today about ethical behavior, both personally and professionally. And just with, kind of, both ends of the political spectrum being kind of charged with having charges of corruption leveled against them, and as someone that spent much of their career in public service, what are, what do you feel are kind of the keys to remaining true to, kind of, ethics and, kind of, morality in the face of political pressures?

Sandra Day O'Connor [automatically transcribed, may contain inaccuracies]
I think we have to be concerned in this country about evidence of greater corruption. We see stories at all levels of state and local government and even in Congress of certain corrupt acts by public officials, and that's very disturbing to me. We just, we have to try to work to create a culture where that is unacceptable. I always tended to think that maybe there was more corruption in other nations than in our own. Today, I'm not so sure. And I think there's enough evidence of corruption in our own country at almost every level, that every one of us should be concerned and do everything we can to demand that we have servants in public service who will not engage in corrupt acts. We can't tolerate them. I hope you'll be concerned and do what you can about it. Thank you.

Host
Justice O'Connor, thank you for your integrity for your incredible combination of both wisdom and practicality and for your commitment that I hope we can learn from, to always spend your time concerned about making a real difference in the world. You've done that for your community. You've done that for your family. You've done that for this nation, for which we're very grateful. And you've done that for the world. May we follow in your footsteps as you did and Harry Rathbun.