"As the son of a crusty old commercial fisherman from the east end of Long Island, I needed a lot of polishing, and Hamilton did the job," says Ralph Oman '62, who credits Hamilton with preparing him to embark on a long career in public service. Here, he describes his path from College Hill to Capitol Hill to today:

"After graduating from Hamilton, I spent two years in Saudi Arabia as a U.S. Foreign Service officer, writing reports on the camel crop and the date harvest, and denying visas to Palestinian and Yemeni visa applicants. Then I spent five years in the Navy as a naval flight officer, first in the P-5 Marlin seaplane, then in the land-based, four-engine P-3 Orion, with two tours of duty in Vietnam. I then went to law school at Georgetown, but I had five months to kill between getting out of the Navy and starting at Georgetown, so I worked as a speechwriter for Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, who was running for reelection. That was my first exposure to Capitol Hill, and, as a history major at Hamilton, I found it exhilarating to walk the marble in the hallowed halls of the Capitol.

"Following law school, where I was the executive editor of the international law journal, I clerked for a federal district court judge, and then, via the Honors Program, to the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, which sounds better than it really is. Miraculously, after a year at Justice, Senator Scott called and asked me to rejoin his staff. He had just introduced the most important antitrust legislation since the Clayton Act of 1914, and he wanted me to staff him on the Judiciary Committee. Senator Scott retired in 1976, and then Senator Mathias of Maryland asked me to work for him. In my 10 years on the Hill, I helped pass many bills, including the antitrust legislation, now know as Hart-Scott-Rodino, the Civil Rights Attorneys Fees Act, the Trademark Reform Act and the Copyright Reform Act. I ended my Senate career as the chief counsel of the Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks, and from that position I was appointed the Register of Copyrights of the United States. I was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Blackmun, with my family, Senator Scott, Senator Mathias and the Librarian of Congress Dan Boorstin looking on.

"I served as the head of the Copyright Office for almost nine years. At the end of 1993, I retired from government and entered private law practice for the first time. After 15 years at the Washington office of an international law firm, I retired again and moved to George Washington Law School full-time as practitioner-in-residence where I am today, greatly enjoying the academic setting. As the only living former Register of Copyrights, I am still much in demand as an expert witness in copyright cases. I also teach three law school classes and travel internationally for GW's Creative and Innovative Economy Center, training judges and government officials."