Tribute to and Pictures of Pamela M Young.pdf - International Law ...

IN TRIBUTE to
Pamela M. Young
Though the Jessup Competition owes its success, and its future, to
many who made unparalleled commitments in its first fifty years
– from those who will be acknowledged at public banquets to
those quietly toasted in numerous small gatherings after – there
is perhaps no single individual whose fire burned longer, and had
a more lasting impact on the Jessup Competition, than that of
Pamela Young.
To understand how Pamela Young came to be so important to the
Jessup Competition, and in turn the Competition to her, requires
understanding a bit of the journey that brought her to ILSA. She
was born in the late 1920s near London, just as the world was entering a global depression. Her
father did well, but her family lived modestly. She was raised in an environment that encouraged
individual responsibility, stressed the importance of charity, and most importantly instilled a very
traditional sense of fairness, equality, compassion and the proper conduct of social relations. She
received, as she would later say with great pride, “a proper conservative English up-bringing.”
As a teenager Pamela worked as a secretary at the Canadian Mission in London, and endured the
nightly terror of blackouts and rockets roaring overhead to their targets in the city center. She lost
several of her schoolmates during that period – perhaps the harshest introduction one can receive
at that age to the occasional brutality of the world at large. She was just coming into her own when
the United States unleashed the atomic bomb, the pall of the Cold War subsequently fell over
Europe, and the United Nations emerged from the post-war negotiations.
After the war she moved to Paris, where she soon became the young bride of an aspiring British
diplomat in the employ of the World Bank. For the next 20 years she followed him around the
world from station to station, most often in the farthest reaches of Africa and the Far East. Along
the way their family grew, and she cheerfully juggled several children against the constant social
demands of a diplomatic spouse. And while the experience proved fulfilling in numerous ways, she
again often found herself in the midst of the worst of mankind’s excesses: more than once she
bundled her children in the dead of night to flee the wars of independence and genocides that swept
the African continent and Asia in the 1950s and 60s. The stories she would share over afternoon
tea – always in private with “her Directors,” as such stories weren’t “proper” for telling to strangers
– were enough to keep us awake at night. While those stories aren’t appropriate to retell on such a
happy occasion, it can be said with confidence that Pamela witnessed more of mankind’s potential
for brutality during that period than many on the front lines of the human rights movement today
will see in their entire careers.
Yet at the same time, Pamela found many outlets for the compassion her parents had promoted.
She spoke often of the joy she felt when she was able to use her position to bring a bolt of fabric, a
box of toys, or a bag of schoolbooks to the impoverished women and children she encountered in
her travels. By day she was engaged with the people and activities that often overlooked the more
mundane interests of the local population, but in her spare time she relished the opportunity to
perform the small acts that made major differences in their world.

When the family was assigned to a Canadian post in the late 1960s, Pamela was finally able to settle
in and focus on her children. Soon thereafter her husband left, and eventually divorced. As a single
mother with a house full of children who had forgone her own education for her husband’s career,
she had very few options for employment in Canada. Feeling that her diplomatic experience gave
her the best chance at a career capable of providing for her family, and desiring to recapture the joy
she felt in providing assistance to those in need around the world, she moved to Washington, DC, in
the early 1970s in hopes of finding work with an embassy or non-profit that conducted such work,
or perhaps engaging her contacts within the World Bank. She was introduced through friends to
the Jessup Competition, and began volunteering with those early efforts. In 1974, ILSA (then the
ASILS) and the ASIL realized that they had found an invaluable resource and agreed to split her
salary so that she could join the Competition on a full-time basis.
While the move would change her life forever and provide her family the stability she sought, she
had not yet entirely escaped the dangers of world political upheaval. On September 22, 1976, when
Orlando Letelier, foreign minister in the Chilean government of President Salvador Allende
Gossens, was assassinated via car bomb outside the Chilean embassy in Washington, Pamela was at
her desk in Tillar House where her office window overlooked the front of the embassy. She would
later note with irony that the minor cuts she received from flying glass that day were the only
physical injuries she ever received despite all that she had witnessed.
At the time, the Jessup Competition was in its second decade but still very much a fledgling effort.
The first permanent director had been hired several years before, and only several dozen law
faculties were involved in the annual event, mostly from the United States and Europe.
International Law was not a prominent educational offering, and very few law schools offered the
course, let alone the myriad degree programs and specialty courses that abound today. Many of the
rules, procedures and the vast network of contacts that drive the Competition we know today were
still being conceived. Business was conducted via mail and telex, and global contacts that can be
concluded in minutes today took weeks, or even months, to unfold. But given the unique
arrangement of employing a recent law graduate in a fixed term fellowship as Competition director,
the Jessup office was fueled by youth, ambition and an overabundance of optimism. Early directors
and supporters realized that they had developed something with the potential to greatly expand the
reach of international legal education, to expose generations of idealistic young lawyers around the
world to new experiences and contacts, and to profoundly affect their subsequent careers. And
Pamela Young thrived in the Jessup environment.
As a succession of young directors came through the office, she adopted each as her own. We
became her family, and she ours. She reveled in each new team contact the office received, and
immediately set about championing their cause. Her cheerful demeanor, boundless charm, and
impeccable social skills drew an ever-expanding network of academics, lawyers, diplomats, and
students to the effort. Her knowledge of cultural differences, event planning and the intricacies of
embassy and diplomatic processes made her an invaluable resource to everyone involved. With
time, though the director would change every few years, Pamela became the force of consistency in
the office that ensured the Jessup’s continued success. And indirectly, she became the matriarch of
a family that would grow to include thousands and span the globe when she retired twenty years
later.
In the Jessup, Pamela found a perfect match for her background, skills, personality and strong
desire to help young people work toward a more equitable world. She would speak with pride of
accomplished Jessup alumni and the heights they had achieved, in the tone of a proud grandmother.
And then she would segue into the humorous stories of the day they first appeared in her office –
lost, confused, generally terrified and feeling that they were involved far beyond their abilities. But
if they made it that far the worst was over, for all that did so will agree that she was the heart of the

Jessup organization during her tenure in the office and a major source of confidence and inspiration
for all competitors who found their way to her fold.
But her influence did not stop there. Each successive director would enter the office with grand
dreams and ambitious schemes to expand the Competition, and immediately set about “improving”
the forms, processes and outreach employed by our predecessor. And each time Pamela would
cheerfully play along and support our efforts, offering only suggestions and the voice of experience
– as “questioning her boss” simply would not have been proper. She would educate us on the
imbalances of the world and the need to account for educational, financial and cultural differences
that touched upon our work. She would remind us of the Competition’s goals, its true potential, and
what those who came before us had given on its behalf. As we reviewed each proposed change with
her, she would challenge us to ensure that they honored that history and potential. And as each of
us left the office several years later, we would invariably look back to find that while we had left our
mark on the Jessup in the form of numerous refinements, in the grand picture we had really just
reorganized the office furniture and painted the walls. While Pamela never once told us what to do,
through her experience and the sheer influence of her personality she had invariably guided us
down the course that was best for the Competition itself.
Those who worked with her in such a capacity are unlikely to say that Pamela worked “for them”.
Pam worked “with” us, and in many senses we simply worked for her. While orders were never
given, approaches never questioned, and solutions never second-guessed, every Director who
worked with Pamela was inevitably guided in their daily affairs by a simple guiding factor – the
abject, terrifying fear of disappointing her, or failing to meet the standards of fairness, equity and
compassion that she championed and in turn expected of her “family”. For many of us, by the time
our terms as director came to an end the thought of disappointing Pamela was akin to
disappointing our own mothers.
And it is in that way that Pamela Young left her mark on the Jessup Competition. Not only upon
those of us fortunate enough to have spent several years of our lives working with her daily, but
upon the competitors, volunteers, sponsors, vendors, professors, deans, administrators, diplomats
and many others from all walks of life whose paths came together through the Jessup Competition
over the years. She left an indelible mark on every life she touched, and each who knew her came
away a better person for the experience. While she never sought advancement or recognition, and
even argued against the creation of an award in her name to acknowledge extraordinary annual
volunteer contributions, her presence in the Jessup office permanently shaped the Competition for
the better in immeasurable ways that extended far beyond what her title implied.
Though it has been fifteen years since her retirement as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the
Competition, one need only mention her name in a crowd of supporters to trigger smiles, stories
and even tears. Regardless of an individual’s role in the Jessup, if their path crossed Pamela’s they
possess a fond memory – or more likely dozens of them – from the encounter. Thanks in large part
to Pamela Young – her unique experience, her innate sense of fairness, her endless compassion, her
love of her Jessup family, and her ability to touch so many lives so very, very deeply – the Jessup
Competition has developed what can only be described as a “soul” of its own. The Competition will
grow, and change, and face numerous challenges as it ages, but we are secure in knowing that it
received its own “proper upbringing” under her careful tutelage . . . and for that it will always fare
well. And I have no doubt that when Jessup alumni and supporters gather again fifty years hence
for the Competition’s centennial, though few will be alive to have known her personally, the spirit
she imparted upon the Jessup Competition during her tenure will continue to touch the lives of
everyone involved, and they will be better people for it.
Brett Lorenzen

Jessup Administrator, 1992-1994
With thanks to Jonathan Clark Green, Jessup Administrator, 1987-1989, and on behalf of all who were
so privileged to have had the opportunity to work with Pamela Young during her tenure.