Stefan Presser, 52

Stefan Presser, former legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, died over the weekend from brain cancer. He was 52.

I did not know Stefan well, which is to say that I barely knew him at all. But for about a year, when I also worked at the ACLU in '94-'95, my office was next to his. I was the public education coordinator and assistant to the executive director at the time.

What I remember about Stefan was his passion. He seemed to me to be passionate about most everything he did, and in particular, his legal work, and his children, and righting injustices. I remember how excited he was the night he found out one of his cases had been certified as a class action. The way he listened intently to his clients, as if he was absorbing their words with every bit of his body. The careful attention he paid to the phone messages that Frank, the elderly intake counselor, would give him.

When law professors speak of being a "zealous advocate" for clients, they were talking about Stefan. He was the real deal, the embodiment of zeolous advocacy. As we say in the Jewish tradition, may his memory be a blessing.