Deceased November 4, 2020
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In Memory
Ray Battocchi passed away on Nov. 4, 2020, due to complications following surgery for lung cancer. He was 78.
Ray was president of his senior class at Thomas Snell Weaver High School in Hartford, Conn. At Amherst, he was co-captain of the football team, an all-New England guard and linebacker, and winner of the Woods-Travis Prize and the “most improved student” award. After graduation, he was drafted by a semipro football team but chose instead to go to law school at the University of Virginia. He served as an elections observer in Mississippi in 1968, while working with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Along with Terry Segal ’64, he also worked for Tip O’Neill.
Ray argued a First Amendment case, Boos v. Barry, before the Supreme Court, persuading the Court to partially reverse a decision by Judge Robert Bork, who earlier had been Ray’s mentor. (Listen to Ray argue the case: oyez.org/cases/1987/86-803.)
After an eight-year stint with the Department of Justice, Ray spent 24 years as a civil litigator for two commercial law firms (he was a partner in one of them) and then worked as a solo practitioner. He was also a pro bono attorney for Public Citizen. He was very good at what he did: he was named a member of Top D.C. Attorneys and Top Virginia Attorneys by Super Lawyers.
Ray’s younger brother, Ron ’70, said that for him, Ray was “a gift that kept on giving.” Joe Wilson ’64 described Ray as “a genuine, good and thoughtful man, an example of the proverbial ‘force of nature.’ I was grateful to get to know him better over time.”
Ray is survived by his wife, Minda McCabe; sons Adam and Brian; stepdaughters Sarah McCabe and Sandra McCabe; granddaughters Maggie and Kathy; and brother Ron ’70.
Gene Palumbo ’64