Utah's new federal magistrate, the son of an immigrant farmer, spent his youth chasing ripening crops from state to state and didn't speak English until he was 15.
A friend recounted Samuel Alba's extraordinary life during Alba's swearing-in ceremony in U.S. District Court Friday. Alba, a Mexican-American, is the first Hispanic to sit on Utah's federal bench.The ceremony was both remarkable and poignant. Alba's wife, Nancy, died from breast cancer seven weeks ago. She and Alba had long dreamed of him becoming a judge in a state that had no Hispanic state or federal district judges.
"My emotions are running all over the place," Alba said. He wept as he spoke of the wife who put him through law school. "I am very sad that she is not here to share this moment," he said. Sam and Nancy Alba learned of Alba's appointment weeks before her death. She was able to share his pleasure in his first days of work as magistrate in the days before she died.
Alba was pleased to be the first Mexican-American serving in the magistrate post and said he hoped to be remembered for his fairness.
Law school classmate Gordon Campbell recounted Alba's life. "He's been to Steinbeck country and seen predecessors to men like Caesar Chavez," he said.
Alba learned to speak English after his father took a job with a farmer in Franklin, Idaho. "The farmer said, `I'll hire you, Mr. Alba, but if I do, you'll have to send that boy to school.' "
Alba took to school and school took to him. At 15, he couldn't speak English. At 17, he was enrolled at Utah State University on a scholarship without needing to attend his senior year of high school.
Alba also attended an Arizona law school on scholarship. After graduation, he practiced defense law "with two great lions of the Southwest," including the attorney whose defense of Ernesto Miranda lead to the famous "Miranda rights," Campbell said.
Many lawyers complain that some judges don't have enough trial experience, Campbell noted. "In this case, we can all rest assured that a trial lawyer has been appointed to the bench."
After Campbell's remarks, Judge Monroe McKay, presiding judge of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, also praised Alba. McKay, who once practiced law in Phoenix, has known Alba since law school.
The hopes of others who aspire to prominence in the law "remain high because Sam Alba comes to this glorious day," McKay said.