MY FATHER, NO INCONSIDERABLE PERSON

William D. Valente, Esq., of Philadelphia, Professor Emeritus at Villanova Law School and a nationally recognized scholar of constitutional and education law, died July 30 of complications from cancer. He was 83.

Mr. Valente was born in South Philadelphia, the last of twelve children of immigrant parents. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Pennsylvania in 1947. Two years later he graduated from Penn Law School, where he became the first Italian-American Editor-in-Chief of the law review and was awarded Order of the Coif. After two judicial clerkships, he entered private practice and later became an Assistant City Solicitor and a partner with Mesirov, Gelman, Jaffe, and Levin. He practiced in diverse areas, such as admiralty law. and was an innovator in the use of deed restrictions to shape the character of city neighborhoods (such as Society Hill) undergoing revitalization.

Mr. Valente began his tenure as Law Professor at Villanova University in 1963. A leading expert on constitutional and education law, he modeled new standards of scholarship and publication for the law faculty. He authored dozens of scholarly articles and several major textbooks, including Law in the Schools (now in its sixth edition), Local Government Law, and a two-volume Education Law Treatise. As a testament to his transforming influence on the intellectual culture of Villanova Law School, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 1994.

Mr. Valente was an early and lifelong proponent of school choice and a major figure in Catholic education circles. He was a founder and later President of Citizens for Educational Freedom, an advocacy group that won major victories by securing textbooks and bus transportation for private and parochial school students in Pennsylvania. He also drafted legislation, passed as part of the 1967 Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Act, which provided state aid for students at private colleges and universities.

Mr. Valente was Associate Counsel in briefs of several school funding cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) which established the “Lemon” test for state aid to religious institutions, Lemon v. Sloan (1973), and Meek v. Pittenger (1975). In 1978, Mr. Valente testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance and the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee regarding tuition tax credits for students at private and parochial schools.

From 1967 to 1970, Mr. Valente served as the first lay President of the Board of Education of the Archdiocese in Philadelphia, which oversees parochial schools in five counties. He also served on the boards of several Catholic colleges and private schools. In recognition of his service, Pope John Paul II named him a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1982. In 1985, the St. Thomas More Society of Philadelphia selected him for the St. Thomas More Award, which recognizes a member of the legal community who best exemplifies Judeo-Christian principles in the practice of his profession. He retired from public life in 1994.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held at St. Patrick’s Church at 20th and Locust Streets on Saturday. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, four children, and five grandchildren.