Law Professors
Students Rally Around Law Prof Struggling With ALS
Posted May 14, 2008, 11:23 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Florida State law professor Steven Gey told his students last month that he can no longer teach because Lou Gehrig's disease is sapping his ability to speak, eat and even breathe.
His students are praying for him, even though Gey is an ACLU lawyer who defends separation of church and state and “rationalist, non-Christian governance,” the St. Petersburg Times reports. The professor was passionate in the classroom and popular with students, both Christians and atheists. "He believed people ought to be able to believe whatever they want," his wife, Irene Trakas, told the newspaper.
The disease is slowly killing Gey, forcing him to undergo hospitalization to have an feeding tube inserted.
“Gey and his students are facing his illness together,” the newspaper says. “It has bonded believer and nonbeliever, followers of faith and followers of humanism. It has negated the mutual disdain that characterizes religious differences.”
A student who posted a response to the ABA Journal’s Question of the Week told of a student triathlon to raise money for Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, held in honor of Gey.
“In 2006, one of our favorite professors, Steven Gey, was diagnosed with the horrible disease,” the student wrote. “The students responded by putting down their books and picking up their swim goggles, bikes and running shoes. Just this Saturday, we finished our second ‘Tri-for-Gey.’ Sixty-eight triathletes fundraised over $68,000 for ALS research in connection with the event.”
A hat tip to Tax Prof Blog and Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports, which posted the Times story.