Tribute: eulogy, William B. Sprong, Jr., United States Senator (1966-1973), Dean of the College of William and Mary School of Law (1976-1985).

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Author: Sullivan, Timothy J.
• Date: 01 March 1998

It all began with bourbon and tuna salad. Now a few of you must be wondering what I could possibly mean. How could Bill Spong's triumphant William and Mary years have anything at all to do with bourbon and tuna salad? But that is the way they did begin, and you should know the story.

On a brilliant, autumn Saturday sometime in October of 1975, I drove from Williamsburg to Portsmouth. I was the very young chair of the William and Mary Law School Dean Search Committee. My job--and it seemed to me mission impossible--was to convince Senator Spong that he really, really did want to become dean of a law school facing severe adversity.

Bill invited me to meet him at his home. We sat down to lunch at the kitchen table. His beloved wife Virginia provided the tuna salad, which was very good; Bill supplied the bourbon--which was also very good. His daughter Martha hovered--so it seemed to me--skeptically on the fringes of the room. Tommy would occasionally catapult through the room in pursuit of an errant soccer ball.

Bill and I talked, he was interested, and the rest is happy history. Bill Spong did come...