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Arnold Blockman

Arnold Blockman

Former circuit judge | Now teaching at UI Law | Class of 1973

Forty-eight years later, the Hon. Arnold Blockman still remembers the "shocked" look on his wife's face "at moving her to this small town in the middle of a corn field with frigid winter winds."

Coming to C-U from Chicago in 1970 so he could attend law school was "an adjustment" to put it mildly, he says, "but well worth it for our future life and wonderful memories that we have accumulated for many years.”

The long-time and recently retired Champaign County judge remembers those early days in Campustown — "studying daily in a dark basement deli; the area’s first real coffee shop, named Bubby and Zadie's; eating fish sandwiches at the DeLuxe on Green Street; and listening to folk music at Irelands on Neil Street, where Kristin Lems performed.

“I also remember living in a tiny basement apartment at Country Fair Apartments and worrying about my wife being assaulted by the infamous ‘enema bandit.’ Our friends had a hard time believing such a person existed."

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