Marina Angel, Temple law professor emerita and women’s rights reformer, has died at 80
She said she enjoyed “taking people who really don’t know about the law or the legal system and training them. There are thousands of Marina Angel trainees running around.”
Marina Angel, 80, of Philadelphia, law professor emerita, former associate dean, and researcher at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law; longtime civil and women’s rights reformer, scholar, writer, and mentor, died Sunday, Feb. 1, of a sudden cardiac event at her home in Society Hill.
A nationally renowned expert in labor and employment law, Professor Angel spent 38 years, from 1979 to 2017, teaching groundbreaking classes at Temple in employment, criminal, and juvenile law; women and the law; and some previously neglected subjects.
She became the first law professor to earn the Sandra Day O’Connor Award from the Philadelphia Bar Association in 1996 and told The Inquirer she enjoyed “taking people who really don’t know about the law or the legal system and training them. There are thousands of Marina Angel trainees running around.”
She also taught and lectured about the law at Temple University Japan in Tokyo, Rutgers University, Albany Law School in New York, and law schools in Turkey, Puerto Rico, Israel, Australia, and Greece. Former students called her “caring,” “magnificent,” “brilliant,” and “bold” in online tributes. One former student said: “In an environment that sometimes squelches the reasons that some of us chose to become lawyers, she nourished it.”
Professor Angel served as Temple’s associate dean for Graduate Legal Studies and External Programs in 1983 and ‘84 and as adviser to the school’s Women’s Law Caucus and other student law groups. She coordinated international legal symposia and workshops, directed summer school sessions in Greece, and was active on Temple’s faculty senate and other campus boards and committees.
She won awards for her research and initiatives on gender equality, sexual harassment, employment discrimination, judicial ethics, and violence against women in the legal system.
“Her research sparked critical conversations and led to necessary policy changes,” Katayun I. Jaffari, chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, said in a recent tribute.
Earlier, she was an associate professor of law at Hofstra University from 1971 through 1978. She also worked as a law clerk at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, attorney for the Voluntary Defender Association of Philadelphia, and associate at several New York firms.
“There were so few women around when I started. It tells you how bad discrimination was.”
Professor Angel spoke on radio shows, contributed chapters to books, and wrote op-eds for The Inquirer and Daily News. The Legal Intelligencer, Temple Law Review, and other journals published more than 40 of her articles and papers.
She earned a 2004 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the American Bar Association for “an unfailing commitment to advocating for women in the profession.” She also earned the 2016 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of American Law Schools, and a dozen other awards from Temple, Albany, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and other groups.
One of her favorite maxims was: Respond to every act of injustice as if it happened to you.
“Marina stood out because of her statesmanship and signal ability to embrace the legal field as a sacred mission to remedy discrimination,” said longtime family friend Father Emmanuel Pratsinakis. “Her ambitions were subordinate to the welfare of the underserved.”
Marina Angel was born July 21, 1944, in Manhattan. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in 1965, a law degree with honors from Columbia University Law School in 1969, and a master of laws at what is now Penn Carey Law in 1977.
“Professor Angel’s passion for equality and justice is exemplary of an advocate’s spirit, and her many contributions reflect a lifetime of service worthy of great honor and respect.”
She was inspired early by her parents’ empathy and respect for justice, and her father called her a “spirit of fire.” She volunteered as general counsel for the Modern Greek Studies Association and the Greek American Women’s Network, and was active at St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Philadelphia and St. Thomas Greek Orthodox Church in Cherry Hill.
Professor Angel was interested in art, history, and archaeology. She enjoyed Greek cuisine, especially at Zorba’s Tavern, and had what friends called a “Big Fat Greek Retirement Party” in 2017.
Former students said her handwriting was terrible, that she handled worry beads during lectures, and that she faithfully exchanged Christmas cards for years. “There will never be another Marina Angel,” a former student said in a tribute.
Leaders at the Hellenic News of America said: “We recognize that her legacy lives on in the legal profession, in the lives of those she mentored, and in the policies she helped shape.”
“Marina was an island of sanity in the chaos of law school.”
Her cousin Paul Perone said: “She was always looking for what she could do for others. She had a way of enriching you.”
Professor Angel is survived by several cousins and other relatives.
A funeral service and celebration of her life were held Feb. 19 at St. George.
Donations in her name may be made to St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 256 S. Eighth St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19107.