A memorial gathering is being held for Elizabeth Garrett at Cornell University on Thursday, March 17, at 3:00 p.m. in Bailey Hall. The event will be broadcast online here.
ALI Council member and Cornell University President Elizabeth Garrett died last night, the University announced this morning. The thirteenth Cornell president and first female president was 52.
In a letter to the ALI Council, ALI President Roberta Cooper Ramo said that President Garrett was known to be “a rare combination of great intelligence, wit, presence, and vision.” She continued, “With the world, her family, and Cornell, the ALI was so lucky to have her, although for too brief a time.”
Although she served as Cornell’s president for less than one year, Garrett was actively involved in campus issues, including tackling housing problems for graduate students and defending freedom of speech on campus.
“It is with utmost sadness that I write to inform you that our president, colleague and friend, Elizabeth Garrett, passed away late last evening after a brave battle with colon cancer,” the Chair of the Board of Trustees Robert Harrison wrote in an email to the Cornell community. “There are few words to express the enormity of this loss.”
He called Garrett a “remarkable human being” and a “vibrant and passionate leader” who he said impacted the lives of countless students, faculty members and friends.
In addition to serving on ALI’s Council, President Garrett was an Adviser for the Project on Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct on Campus: Procedural Frameworks and Analysis, as well as the Principles of the Law, Government Ethics project.
Read the full article on Elizabeth Garrett’s passing here, and a Message from Cornell Board Chairman Harrison here.
Read the piece published by her alma mater, the University of Virginia School of Law, here.