Fondly Remembering Gabe Wilner

• Publication year: 2011
• Citation: Vol. 39 No. 3

Fondly Remembering Gabe Wilner

Walter Hellerstein^*

Gabe Wilner's invaluable contributions to the University of Georgia School of Law as a teacher, scholar, and administrator are well known and well documented, and there is little that I can add to the impressive record on that score. I will focus instead on Gabe's intangible—but by no means less important—contributions to the life of the Law School. Indeed, for me it is Gabe's intangible contributions to the Law School community that were the most important and that will be the most enduring.

Gabe substantially enriched the Law School community by his cosmopolitanism, which the dictionary defines as "having worldwide rather than limited or provincial scope or bearing"¹ or "having wide international sophistication."² Gabe's cosmopolitanism was attributable in part to his unique personal and professional history. Gabe was born in Lebanon, educated in the United States, England, and Belgium, and lived not only in these four countries, but also in Brazil, Ecuador, France, India, and the Netherlands. In addition, he taught in Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, and Switzerland.

Because of the breadth and diversity of his personal and professional background, Gabe brought an unparalleled understanding of different cultures to the law and to the legal academy. Whether sitting in one of Gabe's classes, chatting with him and his students in his office, or attending a gathering in his home for a distinguished foreign visitor, one could not help but be...