IN MEMORY OF PROFESSOR STEPHEN T. ZAMORA.

• Author: Skelton, James W., Jr.
• Position: Testimonial

On July 8, 2016, Professor Stephen Thomas Zamora passed away in Mexico City, where he and his beloved wife, Lois, maintained a home away from home. The University of Houston Law Center and the Houston Journal of International Law have lost a loyal and devoted friend, who shall be impossible to replace.

I met Steve in 1978, shortly after he and Lois had moved to Houston. We had two very significant things in common, the Peace Corps and our interest in international law. Steve and Lois had begun their 50-year marriage serving as Peace Corps Volunteers in Colombia from 1967-69, and I had served as a PCV in Ethiopia from 1970-72. As internationalists, it was only natural for us to gravitate toward international legal issues, and by the time we met we were totally committed to a wide variety of matters related to international law.

Another mutual interest was the continued growth, welfare and recognition of the Journal. Steve served as a Faculty Advisor to the Journal since its inception, and I have served as a member of the Journal's Advisory Board since it was formed. We had similar visions and goals and worked well together on many of the Journal's issues and projects over the years. All three of these factors formed the foundation for a professional and academic friendship that lasted for almost 38 years.

Steve was always upbeat and as kind, pleasant and helpful as anyone I have ever met in my life. His kindness, good humor and generous compliments came to him so naturally and effortlessly that he made everyone he came in contact with feel important and valued. A recent edition of the Texas Lawyer quoted a longtime colleague, Bradley Richards of Haynes and Boone, as saying, "Steve was the consummate gentleman. He was kind, thoughtful and even-tempered. He was a great professor. He was always prepared, shared his knowledge with enthusiasm, listened to the students and offered them a helping hand whenever he could." That is a wonderful and accurate description of Steve as a man and a professor.

Steve was a very intelligent man who, in 1972, graduated first in his class from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He graduated from Stanford University in 1966 with a major in Political Science. Following graduation from law school, Steve, Lois and their children, Camille and Peter, moved to Geneva, Switzerland where he served a one-year Postgraduate Fellowship at the University Consortium for World Order...