“Why are you applying to the Gates Program?” Annie said when she looked at the application on my computer.
“Because that’s where the money is,” I replied. She was tired of that old Willie Sutton line, but it seemed to fit too perfectly.
A few weeks later I was flying to Seattle to interview for a Gates Scholarship. The William H. Gates Public Service Law Scholarship Program had been started by Bill Gates to honor his father, William Gates Sr., a retired attorney and grad of UW.
Since public service is exactly what I want to do anyway, this seemed like the perfect opportunity. It seemed like God was tapping me on the shoulder and saying, Here’s your chance to give back some of those blessings you’ve received.
I returned to Omaha and settled in for the wait. But there was no wait—the phone rang.
It was Michele Storms, the executive director of the Gates Program. She told me how excited UW and the Gates Program were to have me.
I wondered if she had dialed the wrong number.
It was that time of year, late April, when snow still holds to the shadows, but the more aggressive trees are already budding green. We drove back to David City for Easter to visit my grandparents, Dale and Sandra Schmid. We passed the great fields of Grass Valley Farm. They were dark with snowmelt, waiting for maybe one more week of sunlight—the soil, half a foot down, should be around fifty degrees before the steel plows and new seeds can begin everything again.
Near our family house I stood up in the threshold of our car and looked around to see how far I could see. Where was the cloud of desperation that I had seen so often hanging over this land? How had I ever seen it, when there was nothing really there but blue sky and kind people and all the opportunity that a free country could provide?
Before the corn comes up you can see a long way. Maybe I still couldn’t make out the Golden Gate or the Empire State building, but I couldn’t see any obstacles, either.
The obstacles weren’t ever there; they existed only in my mind, imagined in the folly of youth. But God’s grace, the years, the law, and Annie had replaced all that with love.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When you’re granted second chances in life, they often come from the grace of others. Beyond my wife, Annie, who is my best friend, greatest love, and the single greatest thing to ever happen to me, I’d like to thank the following people who were not given their due in the book: Mark and Grace, our children whom we adore; my grandparents Dale and Sandra Schmid, and Joanne Hopwood, who never quit loving me, even when they had every right to; Luan Metzner, the best mother-in-law and grandmother for my children a guy could ever ask for; Bill Richards for owing me a BMW; Mark, Janelle, and Dan Metzner for their unending support; Angie Metzner for giving me a ring to propose with; Vince and Denise Metzner for supporting the marriage of a former convict to their niece; Marty and Sue Barnhart for changing my path eternally; Pastor Mark Ashton from Christ Community Church for taking the time to answer my questions; Allison Huebert for guiding me through the law-school process; Dr. Keith and Heidi Lodhia for being our good friends; Stu Dornan for gracious professional advice; Rorie Norton for answering a random phone call from a known felon; Shellie Schulz for remaining a friend when it wasn’t popular; Mark and Leanne Carlson for being the best delivery friends ever; Matt and Amy Jensen, Sean and Christine Robertson, Wade and Melissa Woolley, and Mars Hill Church for welcoming us to Seattle; Dr. Chenelle Roberts for the successful home birth of our precious baby girl; Angie Heim, Anthony and Amanda Baratta, and Chas and Jeannine DeVetter for fun friendship; Tracy Hightower-Henne for working with me when few others would; and Jody Hotchkiss for being my friend first and agent second.
I’d also like to thank the people who helped with the book itself. Rick Horgan and Nathan Roberson at Crown, I hate to imagine what Law Man would have looked like without your guiding hand. And thanks, also, to Gail Ross from RossYoon for believing in this story from the beginning, and to Dennis Burke for helping to shape the story.
I would not have made it to law school without the help of the following: Rich Friedman, Eric Schnapper, Judd Patton, Kellye Testy, and Michele Storms. And I will not make it through school without the laughter generated from Class of 2014, Section 5.
And to Jesus of Nazareth for working the many miracles in between.
—SHON HOPWOOD
August 2012
Law Man: My Story of Robbing Banks, Winning Supreme Court Cases, and Finding Redemption Page 23
