DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE

ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE DINNER

OCTOBER 29, 1997

PAXON HOLLOW COUNTRY CLUB

Honorees:

  • Betty Bosse
  • Kathy Hamre
  • Dottie Kissinger
  • Millie Tuck

President Judge Stephen J. McEwen, Jr.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania

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The Office of District Attorney, in every county throughout America, is known as a “row office”, since county courthouses everywhere were traditionally and originally designed for the public to enter the front door and go straight down the corridor where the offices of the county officials were all in a row: The Commissioners, the Sheriff, the Register of Wills, the Prothonotary, and the District Attorney.

But if the Office of the District Attorney is by definition just another row office, the Office of District Attorney is in role, function, responsibility – and in importance – the most visible, the most prominent, the most essential to the preservation of law and order in the county and to the safety and protection of the citizens of the county.

I have referred thus far to the Office of the District Attorney as an institution – but every institution is actually the composite of the people within the institution and, obviously, any institution is only as viable and spirited and forceful and strong as the people of the institution ... and, certainly, it is the people of the institution who distinguish a great office from the merely good ones.

It is, to be sure, the lawyers, the prosecutors, who are out front, in the public eye, on the stage, indeed, in the center stage spotlight, as they present the evidence and prosecute the accused and achieve guilty verdicts. No one will deny, least of all myself, that courtroom prosecutor/advocates earn the handshake of congratulations, the slap on the back for a win, the smile of success, and the glow of victory – for few experiences so test and forge and mold as does the anguish of the jury trial courtroom, and the anxiety of that pit.

It will be, in but five weeks, on December 1, thirty years since I took the Oath of Office as District Attorney in Delaware County – and the Order of the Door was opened. The legend of that Order includes the observation that:

The institution that is the Office of the District Attorney of Delaware County is but the reflection of the warm associations and valued friendships begun there, as well as of the stories of the intense prosecutions and lighter moments that have become legend and lore.

And, as you may know, the motto of the Order is: Amicis Patet Semper Janua: The door is always open for friendship.

I can assure you that, to a person – from the cadre of veteran prosecutors who had, prior to December 1, 1967, made the office a Hall of Fame, to the twenty or more attorneys who became prosecutors from that date through January, 1976 – each and every one of those DAs considered the women at the desks their friends – and respected, even reverenced, enjoyed, quite warmly, and appreciated, very deeply, each of the women who served in the office for, we all felt very strongly, that it was our dear companions in the cause, our friends who stayed on the third floor, who made it possible for the prosecutors to pursue justice one flight down – just as, I am sure, the prosecutors of today on the first floor, now three decades later, respect and admire and hold in affection the administrative staff whose efforts enable them to go one flight up to similarly pursue the cause.

I trust that you will forgive the consuming nostalgia which compels me to recite the list of those dear friends:

– RECITE LIST OF WOMEN OF 1967:1976 –

This evening we honor pillars of the institution of the Office of the District Attorney, individuals who have each by a quarter of a century of devoted service, become the foundation of the institution. Our western culture, and especially our Country, relies on symbols for expression: The scales of justice, steeples of piety, the smile of joy, and so on. Most assuredly, however, the most purposeful symbols, the most vivid reflections are real, live examples.

You, Betty, Kathy, Dottie and Millie, are, in my view, just that – real, vivid, live, shining symbols of the fidelity to purpose, of the intensity of pursuit, and of the affection for associates which are the hallmarks of the Office of the Delaware County District Attorney – for you exemplify all of the essential and positive characteristics which elevate that office to an institution, and make it not simply good, but distinguish it as a great institution.

So it is Betty, Kathy, Dottie, and Millie, that we, your office colleagues and Court House friends, assemble this evening, and as one

SNAP TO SALUTE, AND

ACCLAIM APPRECIATION.

May I ask you to rise and by your applause to do so.

I thank you.

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THE STAFF: 1967 - 1976

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Cass Brodeur

Carol Brown

Jean Burns

Susan Harris

Rita Iezzi

Bernice Kauffman

Connie Kelly

Rose Liberati

Carla Lorenz

Mildred McClanaghan

Betty McTear

Pat Nelson

Marian Oliver

Maria Palmer

Ad Patero

Helen Peacock

Alice Pearson

Rita Raucci

Virginia Roberts

Gerry Sangillo

Bert Sheftz

Mildred Shoemaker

Dot Stackeni

Pat Stilson

Alex Tayan

Wendy Wolf

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