Service of Others Above Self

The Elizabeth C. Price

The Elizabeth C. Price Award was created in 1999 by the Past Presidents Committee of our Bar Association, to Honor our first Executive director and friend, Elizabeth Price. Betty was hired in 1974 as our Association’s first Executive Director. Purely due to the strength of her gifts and personality, this position grew to became one of authority, influence, and prominence. Her leadership became the model for other bar associations throughout not only the state, but the country, and she was instrumental in building our Association into a truly professional organization.

In honor of Betty’s 25 years with our Association, the Bar Association created this award to honor the dedication, commitment, energy and most of all loyalty which she dedicated to the Bar Association. “The Bar Association recognizes the selfless commitment of Elizabeth and acknowledges that she is the heart, soul and brains behind the Bar

Association. The Past Presidents and members of the Bar Association desire to establish this award in order to preserve the memory of Elizabeth for those of us who know and love her and those that follow, in order that they may have high goals to achieve.”

The Resolution goes on to describe the character of the future recipients of this prestigious award:

The recipient should reflect Elizabeth’s spirit of volunteerism, dedication and loyalty to the Bar Association and should be performing services that reflect well upon the image of all lawyers and in particular, the Delaware

County Bar Association.

The Elizabeth Price Award is unique for our Association. It is the only award that this organization has named for a non-lawyer, and the only one named for a woman, with the exception, of course, of the Themis Award.

Our recipient has celebrated over 50 years as an attorney and member of the DCBA. He is a graduate of St. Joseph’s University and Villanova School of Law. His Jesuit and Augustinian roots have remained a core part of his approach to the law. In 1975 he was elected District Attorney of Delaware County. In 1981 he was appointed to the Delaware County Bench by Governor Dick Thornburgh, later running for election for a ten-year term, ultimately serving this County as a judge for 30 years before his mandatory retirement at age 70 in 2012. He remained serving this county as a senior judge until last year, 2021.

During his tenure as a judge, he did many things to improve the system of justice in Delaware County. He was the leading voice in this County for the creation and implementation of the Indigent Defense Panel. That panel, created in 1999 and continuing through today, is responsible for ensuring that all defendants, when faced with prosecution of a crime, are guaranteed the right to competent representation by an attorney, regardless of ability to pay, as afforded to them under our Constitution.

In 2008, he founded Delaware County’s First Drug Treatment Court, an intensive drug treatment program that allows non-violent offenders to address substance addiction while under the strict supervision of the Office of Adult Probation and Parole and the treatment court judge. The genesis of this Court was our award honoree’s belief that society’s failure to treat the addictions of those in the criminal system is a crime in itself.

These accomplishments are simply a few examples of what might appear on our award recipient’s resume. One can press search on Google and find these things. What one might not find in such a search is what makes our recipient so special and worthy of an Award as momentous as today’s. For example, one might not know that each year he re-reads Plato’s Republic, his judicial oath and the Constitution of the United States, to remind himself of his responsibilities as a lawyer, and a citizen of this great nation. Our recipient has been considered a friend, an ally, and a mentor to legions of attorneys and judges, both younger than himself and his contemporaries. For many years he volunteered his time and insight to this