The 2008 Wallace Stegner Award:
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
By Kurt Gutjahr
Justice O'Connor visited the Center of the American West to receive the award named in honor of one of her favorite authors, the 2008 Wallace Stegner Award. On a beautiful spring evening, the Justice regaled a packed house of more than two thousand people in Macky Auditorium with personal stories from her youth spent on a family ranch along the southern New Mexico-Arizona border. Her recollections were populated by all manner of endearing characters, people who embodied the traits that characterize Westerners and ultimately the Justice herself: independence, kindness, wisdom, and (most importantly) persistence. The Center would like to thank Al and Carol Ann Olson for their generous support of the Wallace Stegner Award and of this event, as well as the University of Colorado Law School for cosponsoring the event.
