March 17--When Merrick Garland attended Skokie's Niles West High School in the late 1960s, he was the sort of young man who seemed destined for big things. He was valedictorian and head of the student council, the possessor of a long list of academic honors.
But as Garland tries to gain a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, classmate James Donenberg said his time on the school's debate team might prove to be the most relevant part of his past.
"He's always been a person who wants to look at every side of an issue," said Donenberg, now an accountant in Northbrook. " ... He wants to understand things, all points of view. He tries not to be judgmental in that sense. He's very fair-minded about everything."
Garland's friends and former schoolmates reacted with pride upon learning that President Obama had nominated him for a seat on the nation's highest court. They recalled him as brilliant, kind and popular, successful at anything he tried, from winning the lead role in a school play to claiming first place in a statewide science contest.
"Whenever anyone talked about the top student in the class, it was Merrick Garland," recalled classmate Howard Bulgatz.
Garland, a federal appeals court judge, said at the White House Rose Garden Wednesday that his grandparents had fled anti-Semitism in Russia, ultimately settling in Chicago. He grew up in Lincolnwood, his father a businessman, his mother a community volunteer whose service included a stint as school board president.
By the time he arrived at Niles West, it was clear to classmates and teachers alike that he possessed rare intelligence and drive.
"He was as all-everything as a student could be," said Lincolnwood Mayor Gerald Turry, a Niles West teacher at the time. "He was a wonderful scholar. His testing was off the charts. He was president of the student council, was on the debate team, and he wasn't a star athlete but was a credible performer."
Rebecca Klatch, now a sociology professor in California, said she still remembers the "amazing" performance Garland gave in "J.B.," a school play that contemporizes the suffering of the Biblical character Job.
"Despite all the talent and accomplishments, he's a down-to-earth, humble and sweet person," she said. "You'd think someone with that much going on would be arrogant, someone who doesn't care about other people. He's not like that at all."
Dr. Robert Loitz, a pediatric cardiologist in Los Angeles, joined Garland on Niles West teams that competed in Prep Bowl and "It's Academic," a popular television quiz show. While Garland hung out with the intellectually inclined, he also pressed for the elimination of a grading system that gave extra weight to honors classes out of a concern that it "stratified people," Loitz said.
"You look back on it, it's almost inevitable that he would have ended up in a position like this," he said, recalling that Garland was "a great role model to the rest of us because he was very level-headed ... very disciplined, mature and friendly, always a calming influence."
Laurie Leader, a law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, served on the Niles West student council executive board with Garland. She remembered a young man with "an amazing work ethic for high school" who led the group in rewriting the student government constitution.
"He was talented, but down-to-earth, not full of himself," she said. "He could laugh at himself. Honestly, he'd be perfect for the Supreme Court."
Garland, voted "most intelligent" by his classmates his senior year, also displayed a dry sense of humor. In a 1970 article in the student newspaper West Word on advice for younger students, Garland said to "be sure to be a monitor and get in control of the (mimeograph) room, because the person who controls the mimeo room controls the school."
Several classmates remembered an episode President Obama referenced when introducing Garland at the White House. Garland, as student council president, was set to give a speech at the Niles West graduation in 1970, but first a fellow student gave an address that turned into a broadside against the Vietnam War.
That didn't go over well with the crowd of parents or the administration, and someone cut off the student's microphone, sparking protests among the students. When it was Garland's turn to speak, classmate Doug Mann recalled, he started with a famous free speech epigram: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
To Mann, that demonstrated a precocious sense of judiciousness. He hoped that Garland would get a chance to put that quality into practice on the high court, but he acknowledged that the politics of the situation -- key Republican senators have pledged to block any Obama nomination -- could make that difficult.
"This really was a goal, an ambition for him," Mann said. "To not have the opportunity to realize that because of some kind of politics that has nothing to do with this guy, that would really be a disservice."
Chicago attorney Barry S. Rosen, who lost the 8th grade student council president race to Garland at Lincolnwood's Lincoln Hall Middle School, became close friends with Garland at Niles West. Later, the two attended Harvard Law School.
After their college freshman year, Rosen, Merrick and three others went camping at Grand Teton National Park. While canoeing on Jackson Lake -- Rosen in a canoe with two others; Garland with another buddy in another canoe -- the winds whipped up, creating high waves and dense fog, Rosen recalled.
The canoes lost sight of each other and, Rosen said, his trio was unable to navigate the waves and dense fog. Garland and his partner found their way to shore, persuaded a man with a motor boat to return to the lake to find the other three, Rosen said.
"I don't think we would have been able to get off that lake without him," Rosen said.
Garland's mother still lives in Lincolnwood, in a modest ranch house near Proesel Park. No one answered the door Wednesday; Garland said in his White House address that his mother was watching on TV "and crying her eyes out."
Others watched at Garland's alma mater. Jason Ness, the current principal of Niles West, said students and faculty tuned the school's television sets to the ceremony.
"This is the ultimate role model here in Judge Garland," he said. "For the kids to understand that this was a student at one point, sitting in the same seats and chairs, will motivate them to really go above and beyond themselves and to reach out to help others."
Tribune reporter Robert McCoppin contributed.
jkeilman@tribpub.com
eleventis@tribpub.com
tgregory@tribpub.com
.jpg?w=600)
