Tertzag Tribute Dinner: Judge Allen presented with Purple Coat, Sen. Levin featured as keynote speaker

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 By John Minnis

Legal News
 
Some 300 attendees — a record crowd — braved a winter storm watch to honor a late beloved colleague at the third annual Tertzag Tribute Dinner and Purple Sport Coat Award ceremony on the evening of Thursday, Feb. 23, in Dearborn.
 
“When we started this three years ago,” said Mike Butler, a member of the Tertzag Tribute Dinner Committee who first came up with the idea to honor the late Judge Kaye “Chach” Tertzag, who died Feb. 4, 2009, “we wanted this to be a Detroit tradition. I think we’ve succeeded by the attendance here tonight. I believe we have a sellout crowd.”
 
Among those in attendance were some two dozen sitting judges and another half a dozen retired judges.
 
Held at the Park Place Banquet Hall in Dearborn, the tribute dinner is an opportunity to honor the former Wayne County Circuit Court judge who went into alternative dispute resolution following his retirement from the bench. He was known for his civility and fairness and his “’Be’attitudes”: “Be prompt. Be prepared. Be polite.”
 
Acknowledging the snowstorm warnings that night, Butler said the speakers would try to adhere to Tertzag’s fourth “Be”attitude: “Be brief.”
 
Tertzag was also known for his colorful wardrobe, including a purple sport coat that Butler suggested as an annual award (akin to the Master’s green jacket in the golfing world) to those most exemplify Tertzag’s fairness, civility and “Be”attitudes.
 
“Many of us didn’t know until he retired from the bench that he wore colorful, and some say ‘frightening’ attire,” Butler said. “Purple was actually one if his more subdued colors.”
 
This year’s Purple Sport Coat Award honoree was Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Allen, a protégé and friend of Tertzag. Past Purple Sport Coat recipients are retired Judge James Rashid and attorney Joseph Lujan, who presented Allen with the coveted jacket this year.
 
Whether ironic or on purpose, this year’s keynote speaker, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, was an appropriate choice. Recommended by Sens. Levin and Debbie Stabenow and nominated by President Barach Obama, Allen withdrew his name after waiting nearly two years for action by the U.S. Senate. 
 
“While I appreciate and am honored by your joint recommendation to the president for this position,” Allen wrote the senators in December 2010, “the almost two year delay (with the prospect of further delay in a much changed Congress come January) in the process has been long enough. I am ready to get back to my personal life and respected state court career, both of which have been on hold far too long.”
 
“The fact he didn’t get his nomination to the federal judge had nothing to do with him but with the messed up system in Washington,” Levin told the crowd in Dearborn. “If I told anyone what you go through to get someone appointed, I would ruin your dinner. Thanks again for honoring David Allen.”
 
Attending the dinner with his wife, Barbara, Levin said he spent a week looking for a purple tie because he was told everyone wearing something purple would be entered into a drawing for a $100 gift certificate to Andiamo’s.
 
“No one offered me a ticket,” the senator said. “I think it’s fixed. I feel at home!”
 
Levin compared Tertzag to his uncle, Theodore Levin, the longtime U.S. District Court after whom the federal courthouse in Detroit is named. They both cared deeply for people and understood human shortcomings. They both sought “to do justice,” Levin said, even if it meant possibly being overturned. “If the higher court reversed, that was their business,” Levin said. “The important thing was to reach justice. Chach, or Kaye, had all those qualities. David Allen has all those qualities.”
 
In the Criminal Division of the Third Circuit Court, Allen has presided over thousands of felony cases in Wayne County. He is a 1993 summa cum laude graduate of the Detroit College of Law, after earning Bachelor and Master’s of Arts Degrees from University of Michigan. Allen is an adjunct professor of law at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School and University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. He is on the boards of several organizations, including YMCA, ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic & Social Services), American Constitution Society, Royal Oak Youth Football League and Boll Family Downtown YMCA. A Detroit resident, he is married to Colleen with three sons.
 
In presenting the Purple Sport Coat, Lujan, along with Rashid, said Allen was chosen this year because he exhibits the qualities for which Tertzag is honored. “We are honored to award David the Purple Sport Coat, which carries, as I mentioned last year, a great obligation,” Lujan said.
 
Concerning Allen’s not being appointed to the federal bench, Lujan said, “That’s their loss as far as I’m concerned.”
 
In receiving the sport coat, Allen made two confessions. One, he used to have a lot of hair, as an early photo of him with Tertzag attests, and, two, he is “wardrobe challenged” and still takes hand-me-downs from his brothers. 
 
“So when the Purple Sport Coat committee called with the good news that I was selected to receive the award this year,” Allen said, “my first thought wasn’t necessarily the great honor of the award, but rather how cool that I was finally going to get some new threads and that the coat was purple and a Versace. Better yet, it was free and like nothing else I’ve got in my closet.” He said he draws the line at purple pants and shoes: “I’ll leave that look to my colleague Judge Craig Strong.”
 
He thanked fellow members of the Tertzag Tribute Dinner Committee — wife, Kathy Tertzag; daughter, Kara Tertzag Lividini; son, Kyle; Wayne County Circuit Judge Gregory Bill; Butler; Robert Cassar; Anthony Guerriero; Lance E. Mermel, and Norm Tucker — as wells as his family, court staff and the Tertzag family.
 
“I want to thank the Tertzag family for sharing Kaye with me and the legion of his friends and supporters,” Allen said. “I know there were many nights he wasn’t home to spend time with you because he was with us and your generosity in sharing him with the world is so appreciated by many.”
 
Allen thanked Sen. Levin for his recommendation for a federal judge nomination and his efforts to try to get it through the Senate. “Win, lose or draw, you won’t find a better person at your side when it really counts,” Allen said of Levin.
 
He thanked the past Purple Sport Coat recipients, Rashid and Lujan, for presenting him with the award. “I’m not sure I’m in the same league as these two gentlemen,” Allen said.
 
Concerning Tertzag, he said, “To say that he was my friend and mentor is an understatement. Despite my close association, it would take me a couple of lifetimes to even stand in the shadow of his greatness. In that regard, I am truly humbled to wear this purple coat. I miss him now more than ever.”
 
Concerning Tertzag’s “Be”attitudes, Allen said, “Kaye expected these of himself and others and certainly was all of that and then some. … Despite all his success and power, Kaye always made you feel like the most important person in the room.”
 
Tertzag also knew how to have fun. “He was human,” Allen said of Tertzag, “and like all of us, he had his faults and weaknesses. In fact, I had some of the best times of my life sharing my faults and weaknesses with a man 30 years my senior.”
 
Allen drew an analogy between Tertzag and the biblical good shepherd and the parable of the lost sheep. “Kaye was always anxious and determined to find the one and was never mad upon catching up to the wayward soul,” Allen said. “Kaye was an accepting person in that regard.
 
“Our large gathering here tonight is testament to Kaye’s enduring example and influence,” Allen continued. “Sadly, his model, in our troubled world, is rare indeed.
 
“As many of you are aware, my professional career hit a little speed bump about a year ago,” Allen concluded. “However, to be standing before my family and all of you my friends, and be honored with an award in memory of such a great man who was my mentor and dear friend, I can tell you: no worries here, no complaints, no what-ifs, no whys, no regrets; life is good; yes, life is good.”
 
Tertzag’s daughter, Kara, an attorney at Ford Motor Co., said she has a photo displayed in her office of her father working as janitor at Ford — which is how he put himself through college as an undergrad.
 
She thanked Allen and Levin for attending and for all they have done for Michigan and the country. 
 
“What a crowd,” she said. “My parents always surrounded themselves with quality people. I came to know my parents’ friends very, very well. I looked at them as family, and before I knew the distinction, I thought for sure I was related to them.”
 
As she did at previous dinners, she related a lesson from her father. She told of a fourth-grade social studies project in which her father refused to help her. While she got an “A,” as did another student with obvious parental involvement, she was nevertheless disappointed because the other student’s project was so much better. 
 
Even her dad’s observation that the other student could not take credit for the “A” did not console her. However, his remark that a “smart girl” would not require a man to do the job for her, struck home.
 
“That talk with my dad that day really shaped my life, and continues to even as I speak to you today,” she said. “And I try to live out that lesson to this day, even when it isn’t easy,” 
 
When her father was sick, she said, “I was able to tell my dad that he gave me the best gift a person can give someone: He believed in me.”  He then told her, “There is one gift that if someday someone wants to give me I should readily accept.  I said, what gift is that?  And he said, ‘AN APPOINTMENT.’”
 
With that, she offered, as she did at her father’s memorial service and every year since, a sambuca toast to her father and echoed by 300 Tertzag admirers:
 
“Onward and upward … ANNOUSH ALLA!”

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