[Vision2020] A Tribute to Roy Mosman

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

After hearing testimony from his family at his moving service on December 9, I now understand Roy Mosman, our most trusted attorney, much better.

My first contact with Roy was when he was an LDS bishop. I asked him if his church could support a visit to the UI campus of the Vice-President of the Moral Majority.  (I debated Cal Thomas in 1993.) Although I received a negative answer, and I really admired his principled response.

Commitment to principle, professional competence, integrity, fearlessness, frank speaking—these were values and virtues that defined the Roy Mosman that I knew.

In 1980 the UI faculty union hired Roy to represent a faculty member who had been denied promotion. We were impressed with the way in which Roy quickly informed himself about university procedures and how eloquent he spoke on behalf of the professor.  

What struck me most was his keen sense of justice and his tenacity in achieving it. The faculty appeal board voted unanimously that the denial of promotion had been unfair.  Note: Appeal boards usually rule in favor the administration.

When the UI declared financial exigency in 198,1 the faculty union again hired Roy to defend Lois Pace, one of the 11 tenured professors who were fired.  Roy tackled this case with characteristic zeal and legal competence and his arguments prevailed in district court.  

Pace's courage in being the only faculty member to file suit brought seven other dismissed faculty back to court, and in the end, primarily because of Roy's legal brilliance, we were able to win settlements of over $1 million..

The faculty union also appreciated Roy's tenure on the State Board of Education. We supported and admired his principled stand that student fee increases on Idaho's campuses were a disguised form of tuition and that was unconstitutional.

Roy Mosman was a great man, a pillar of strength in this community and the state of Idaho.  He will be sorely missed.

Nick Gier, President, Higher Education Council
Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO