In Memoriam: In Memory of Elizabeth Gervais-Gruen

Long-time AILA member Elizabeth Gervais-Gruen (Elizabeth or Betty to her legion of friends) died peacefully at home in her sleep, on July 1; she was 102.

Elizabeth was born in Hungary in 1913. Eight years old and speaking no English, she came to the United States in 1921 with her family.

She attained her law degree at St. John's University, one of only two women in a class of 200. Even more daunting was the dearth of job opportunities for attorneys, especially female attorneys, during the Depression. Elizabeth's first job, in a bankruptcy firm, paid five dollars a week. Later, she worked as an assistant to the North Hempstead, New York Town Attorney.

Elizabeth's first involvement with U.S. immigration law was providing pro bono assistance to World War II-era refugees.

In the 1950s, she maintained a consular-oriented immigration practice at posts throughout Europe; the experience fueled her life-long passion for travel. Elizabeth was a long-time member of AILA's New York Chapter (then the Association of Immigration and Nationality Lawyers).

In 1976, with her new husband, she moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The college community, to which the couple had no ties, was selected because it was neutral ground and because of its retirement potential. As to retirement, fate intervened with a vengeance when, in the late 1970s, the Immigration and Naturalization Service opened its first North Carolina office in Charlotte. Instead of retiring, Elizabeth continued her immigration practice for another three decades. Soon after the opening of the Charlotte office, Elizabeth, along with six, far-less-experienced attorneys, founded what eventually became AILA's Carolinas Chapter. Within six months she became chapter chair.

Elizabeth served on AILA's national Board during most of the 1980s and afterwards, until very late into her practice, continued to attend virtually every Board meeting.

During the Reagan Amnesty era, she served as chair of the North Carolina State Bar Association's Immigration and Nationality Committee. Elizabeth worked tirelessly with AILA members and other attorneys (many without prior immigration experience), providing guidance and training in an effort to provide competent assistance to qualifying foreign nationals.

Long before 1991, when AILA established a formal mentor program, Elizabeth mentored literally hundreds of lawyers throughout the United States. Few, if any, queries went unanswered. In assisting fledging attorneys, as well as skilled practitioners, she invariably encouraged them to either join AILA or to become more actively involved in the association's activities.

Carolinas Chapter spring meetings always ended with Elizabeth extolling the imperative of every competent immigration attorney attending the upcoming annual conference. She made it plain that she felt that failure to attend was little short of malpractice per se. Until a health scare, for decades she attended, without interruption, every annual conference, as well as scores of midyear conferences and countless chapter meetings-no matter how inconvenient. On at least one occasion she took a taxi from Chapel Hill, NC to Charleston, SC for a chapter liaison meeting-a four-and-a-half-hour drive each way.

In 1999 the Carolinas Chapter established the Elizabeth F. Gervais-Gruen Mentoring Award; Elizabeth was the first recipient of her namesake award. She was also the recipient of the 2000 Sam Williamson Mentoring Award, an especially appropriate and meaningful accolade because of her close friendship with Sam, his wife Sophie Ann Williamson, and their family. In 2002, Elizabeth became the first woman to receive the American Immigration Law Foundation's Honorary Fellow Award, presented "in recognition of life-long service and dedication to advancing administration of justice and respect for human rights in the field of immigration law."

At 96 Elizabeth closed her immigration practice; on the occasion of her 100th birthday, AILA's Board of Governors passed a unanimous resolution making her an Honorary Member of the association.

Elizabeth raised four sons as a divorced mom. Her love of photography inspired one son, the iconic rock-and-roll photographer Bob Gruen. Another son, Richard, an IT pioneer, had the distinction of being the first person to employ future Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

Elizabeth's other interests were eclectic and too numerous to fully recount. Throughout her life she was a leader in her synagogues. She had a passion for minerals, art (she was a patron of the North Carolina Museum of Art's Judaica Gallery), crafts, and much more. Even advanced years failed to curtail her frequent, wide travel, throughout the world. She loved the mountains of Western North Carolina. At 75 she skydived for the first time. Though retired, she continued to participate in the life of her adopted community until the last months of her life. In 2014, Chapel Hill recognized her as a "Town Treasure."

At her funeral service on July 3 the congregation stood and sang the Star-Spangled Banner a cappella. Elizabeth is survived by three sons, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. And, countless immigration attorneys, immigrants, and families of immigrants.