U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor ‘50, LLB ‘52 spoke in a packed Memorial Church Tuesday evening about the influence of the late law professor Harry Rathbun ‘16, Engr. ‘20, JD ‘29 on her life, and advised the audience on how to live a fulfilling life.

She often spoke candidly about her early childhood experiences, including her early years on the “Lazy B Ranch,” a 250-square-mile expanse of desert cattle range in Arizona.

“We were about 35 miles away from the nearest town,” she said. “I had my parents, and five or six other cowboys. I am an unemployed cowgirl at present. There is little chance that I’ll be able to state for you all the meaning of life.”

O’Connor started college at the age of 16 and finished law school in two years instead of the customary three. She mentioned the vivid memories of her first day at Stanford and her drive up Palm Drive.

“[I was] overcome with the beauty of this place,” she said. “It was a far cry from the dry and arid landscape of the Lazy B Ranch.”

O’Connor was the first woman to be appointed to the legislative branch in Arizona and the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court, where she served from 1981 until 2006. She was considered a crucial swing vote on the Court for many years because of her case-by-case approach to jurisprudence and her relatively moderate political views. Upon her arrival on the court, O’Connor proved pivotal in divisive cases involving affirmative action, the death penalty and religion. Her vote reaffirmed Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case permitting women the right to an abortion.

She also explained how she faced a difficult job market after leaving Stanford. After graduating, no law firm in California wanted to hire her, and only one offered her a position as a legal secretary.

“At law school, I had no understanding of the almost total lack of opportunities for women,” she said. “If I knew how hard it was to get a job as a woman, I might have chosen a different path.”

O’Connor, the first annual Rathbun Visiting Fellow, heaped praise on her former professor, describing Rathbun as a pivotal figure in her life and an exceedingly kind and welcoming person.

“He was the first person who told me how the individual could make a difference in this complex world we live in,” she said. “He said if we wanted to tackle an issue and worked toward completing that goal, we could achieve it. Harry Rathbun reminded us that freedom and responsibility go hand in hand.”

Last year, the Palo Alto Foundation for Global Community, headed by the Rathbuns’ son, established the Harry and Emilia Rathbun Fund for Exploring What Leads to a Meaningful Life, with a $4.5 million endowed gift to the Office for Religious Life at Stanford.

Paying Rathbun a tribute, the former justice explained how Rathbun believed that all science revolved around the idea that the universe is based on order.

“There was constant evidence of the size of our universe, the stars and the milky way, which you can see when there are no lights from a nearby town,” she said. “All the signs pointed [toward] a grand design, an ordered universe. Some called it Mother Nature. We called it God. Harry Rathbun believed that everyone has religion, whether he knows it or not.”

In a question and answer session with the audience after her speech, O’Connor warned against attempting to bend laws or assuming that a law could be interpreted to allow for certain, unethical activity.

“We have a greater responsibility as human beings,” she said. “We need to ask ourselves if it is the right thing to do. Many times that is not the case. We have to be careful.”

O’Connor urged the audience to forge through difficult times.

“Everyone in public service has to develop a thick skin,” she said. “You are going to get arrows and darts thrown at you. Just deal with it. You can.”

O’Connor ended by declaring her grave concern for the evidence pointing to greater corruption in Congress.

“I used to think that there was more corruption in other countries than our own,” she said. “Today, I am not so sure.”