5K Run to Honor Dean Fran Conte

The University of Dayton School of Law will honor the memory of the late Francis J. Conte with a 5K run on Sunday, October 9.

Sponsored by the Student Bar Association, the Inaugural Conte 5K Classic begins at 2 p.m. on the University of Dayton campus. Registration begins at 1 p.m. at the RecPlex.

Proceeds will benefit the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and will help fund a memorial garden on Keller Hall’s east lawn honoring Conte. Those who are unable to participate in the event may also donate funds.

Conte, who died in March 2011, served the University of Dayton and its School of Law for nearly 25 years.

Student organizers say they hope run will become an annual event to remember the former dean.

“When Professor Conte passed away in the spring, it was a sad time for UDSL,” said 2L Mandy Rieman, the president of the Class of 2013 who first proposed the event. “Professor Conte was such a bright light in our school community and everyone was grief stricken by his loss.”

The Conte Classic, she said, help remember Conte’s legacy “in an upbeat and happy way,” which, she added is how “I would also describe how Professor Conte lived his daily life.”

“Dean Conte was an inspiration to many of us and the annual running of this 5K will ensure that he, and his accomplishments, are never forgotten,” said 2L Joanna Lenefonte, president of the Student Bar Association.

Conte first joined UDSL in 1987 as dean, a position he held until 2001, making him the longest-serving dean in the School of Law's history. After he stepped down as dean, he returned to the classroom as a full-time professor.

During his 14 years as dean, the School of Law planned and raised funds for Keller Hall; developed its distinctive Program in Law & Technology; reformed the first-year curriculum, including the introduction of the Legal Profession Program; and substantially increased the size and diversity of the faculty and the student body.

This isn’t the first time Rieman has been involved in a memorial run. Rieman, who is from Spotsylvania, Virginia, was an undergrad at Virginia Tech during the April 2007 shooting in which 32 people were killed, including four of her friends.

After the tragedy, she said, Virginia Tech started the “3.2 Run for 32” to honor their fallen classmates. When she arrived at UDSL she decided to organize a run for the School of Law.