{"id":1610,"date":"2019-04-22T15:29:38","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T15:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=1610"},"modified":"2019-04-22T19:21:54","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T19:21:54","slug":"law-school-scholarship-recipients-embody-lesars-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/?p=1610","title":{"rendered":"150 Stories of Philanthropy: Law school scholarship recipients embody Lesar\u2019s dream"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pictured
Pictured left to right: scholarship recipient Aaron Herkert and Judge Richard Mills<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Jeff Wilson<\/p>\n

Founding SIU School of Law Dean Hiram Lesar and Judge Richard Mills have more in common than passion for the law. Each of them heeded the call to go above and beyond.<\/p>\n

In 1972, Lesar saw the need for a School of Law at SIU Carbondale, and he led the charge to make it a reality. Decades later, Mills saw the need for financial support of law students, so he spearheaded the creation of the SIU School of Law Judge Richard Mills Scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cHiram Lesar laid the groundwork for a tremendous law school. There was a dearth of legal teaching in Southern Illinois,\u201d Mills said. \u201cHe wanted to put lawyers into this area. It was wonderful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this day and age, it\u2019s difficult to afford a graduate school education without incurring large amounts of debt. Financial support is a necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most recent recipient of the scholarship, which benefits a second- or third-year law school student, was awarded to Aaron Herkert.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout scholarships like this, I wouldn\u2019t be here,\u201d Herkert said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have the opportunity to be a lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Taylorville native hopes to return to his hometown and practice criminal law.<\/p>\n

Beyond easing the financial burden on students, Mills hopes the impact of the scholarship is felt long after the recipients leave SIU.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt opens a lot more doors for graduates,\u201d he said. \u201cBy relieving some of the financial stress, it can give them more personal freedom to take more career paths. They may not feel the pressure to join a large firm and can invest more time in other areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mills has been a regular speaker at the School of Law and presided over moot court competitions. In 1988, he became one of two inaugural SIU School of Law honorary alumni.<\/p>\n

\"Judge
Judge Richard Mills is pictured with his wife Rachel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Beardstown native, Mills, 89, earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Illinois College in 1951. He earned his law degree from Mercer University School of Law in 1957, and a master of laws degree from University of Virginia School of Law in 1982.<\/p>\n

Mills is a retired U.S. Army colonel with 33 years active and reserve service. He served 14 months in Korea with the 3rd Infantry Division, 8th U.S. Army, and earned a Bronze Star. He also was a major general in the Illinois State Militia.<\/p>\n

\u201cLesar\u2019s dream was to produce competent, ethical practitioners of the law, and that\u2019s exactly what the SIU School of Law is doing,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve had 17 law clerks from SIU, and there hasn\u2019t been a single bad one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Judge
Judge Richard Mills is pictured with three of his former law clerks. Left to Right: Tom Patton, Judge Mills, Tom Wilson and Judge Stuart Borden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Wilson Founding SIU School of Law Dean Hiram Lesar and Judge Richard Mills have more in common than passion for the law. Each of them heeded the call to go above and beyond. In 1972, Lesar saw the need for a School of Law at SIU Carbondale, and he led the charge to … Continue reading 150 Stories of Philanthropy: Law school scholarship recipients embody Lesar\u2019s dream<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,4,9,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donor-stories","category-higher-education","category-illinois-higher-education","category-scholarship-recipient","category-siu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1610"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1617,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1610\/revisions\/1617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.siuf.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}