Legacy Giving

Eugene Salisbury’s family creates named scholarship fund

With wife Joanne: “He put his all into everything he did. He was always thinking, always doing. And he meant so much to so many people.”.

With wife Joanne: “He put his all into everything he did. He was always thinking, always doing. And he meant so much to so many people.”

"He thought so much of the University at Buffalo and the Law School. This scholarship fund – he would have loved that.”

Eugene W. Salisbury ’60 never did things halfway. As a paratrooper in the Korean War, he received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. As a UB student, he earned his bachelor’s and law degrees in six years – while also working full time as a police officer. And as a key member of the firm now known as Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria for more than 50 years, he set an unmatched standard for integrity and professional collegiality.

“Whatever he did, he loved,” says his wife, Joanne. “He put his all into everything he did. He was always thinking, always doing. And he meant so much to so many people.”

Salisbury also was proud of his roots at SUNY Buffalo Law School. “He truly loved being a lawyer and being from Buffalo, being involved in the community where he went to school and grew up,” says his granddaughter Rebecca Brawn ’10. “And you could just tell he was so proud that some of his family went to his alma mater.” (The couple’s son Scott Salisbury ’01 is also a Law School graduate.)

So when Eugene Salisbury passed away in March of this year, it seemed only fitting to create a permanent legacy at SUNY Buffalo Law. The family’s $50,000 gift will endow a named scholarship fund to benefit future generations of law students; additional contributions from those inspired by Salisbury’s example are welcomed.

Salisbury held dual roles over the course of his career: In addition to his law practice, he served for four decades as the Blasdell village justice. Brawn says that, growing up, she would sometimes tag along on “court night” to watch him in action. “He exemplified a man of integrity and honesty and tried to express that in his career,” she says. “Between being an attorney and being a judge, he tried to influence his colleagues with his sense of morality.”

That judicial work extended to Salisbury’s service with the New York State Magistrates Association, which supports town and village justices statewide. He taught and mentored justices for many years and wrote the book on the job: The Manual of Procedure for New York Courts and its complement, Forms for New York Courts. When he retired from the bench in 2001, the magistrates association named its annual “Magistrate of the Year” award for him, and the Village of Blasdell this year named its courtroom in Salisbury’s honor. “He did a very good job of creating a legacy for himself and creating the persona of a well-respected member of the legal community,” Brawn says.

And he never forgot the school that made it possible. “He thought so much of the University at Buffalo and the Law School,” Mrs. Salisbury says of her husband, a longtime generous donor to the school. “This scholarship fund – he would have loved that.”