Mr. President, I recently had the great pleasure of attending the Delaware State Bar Association's 70th anniversary celebration. The event was also a tribute to two of my State's most distinguished jurists, both of whom mark in 1994 25 years of service on the bench. The dual commemoration of their personal tenures and the Bar Association's anniversary could not have been more appropriate, in my view, because U.S. District Court Judge James L. Latchum and Delaware Superior Court Judge Vincent A. Bifferato, Sr., have had a truly defining influence on their respective courts and on the Delaware legal community. There are not many States, I would guess, where two such long-serving and respected judges would be known as Jimmy and Biff, but that is our way in Delaware, where not only size but spirit favors familiarity. So the Bar Association event was not just a tribute to great guardians of the law, to valued and admired mentors; it was also a tribute to good colleagues and good neighbors. Judge Jimmy Latchum has what you might call, in understatement, a very impressive resume. He earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton, and went on to law school at the University of Virginia -- which is known both in Judge Latchum's courtroom and in his living room as "The University" -- interrupting his education for several years of distinguished military service during World War II. He began legal practice as an associate in a prestigious Delaware law firm from 1946 to 1951, when he was named a partner. Judge Latchum also served as an attorney for the State Highway Department, as an assistant U.S. attorney for Delaware, and as an attorney for the State's Interstate Highway Division and the Delaware River and Bay Association. Then in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Jimmy Latchum to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for Delaware, where he served on active status until 1983. Judge Latchum was Chief Judge of the District Court from 1973 to 1983, when he took the senior status he now maintains. That's the resume. Now let me see if I can say something about the man. Jimmy Latchum -- product of a highfalutin' Princeton-UVA education, a legal practitioner of the highest order, and a long-serving Federal judge -- this same Jimmy Latchum is a notorious practical joker. In fact, the President of our State Bar Association, Dick Kirk, suggested in his remarks about Judge Latchum that some objects of his practical jokes had done legal research into whether such conduct violated the good behavior standard of his lifetime appointment to the federal bench. Jimmy Latchum is a native of Kent County, DE, a place famed for breeding good folks. And Jimmy Latchum is, in the most meaningful and fundamental sense, good folks. That, as much as any other reason, is why he inspires such affection and regard among his law clerks that they gather every 5 years for a reunion, and that 23 of his 35 former clerks attended a 25th reunion with Judge Latchum just last fall. In the tradition of Kent County, Jimmy Latchum is a remarkable story- teller, with a down-home manner and common-sense wit that instructs even as it entertains. He is a very proud father and grandfather, not to mention proud husband to the former Elizabeth Murray McArthur -- and I will just add that the true pleasure of the bar association dinner was that I got to sit next to Betty Latchum. Good folks. The same can be said of Delaware Superior Court Judge Vincent A. Bifferato, Sr. Judge "Biff" is the product of a Villanova University education, both undergraduate and for law school. His unwavering devotion to Villanova certainly rivals Judge Latchum's affection for Virginia, and underscores an important quality the two men have in common -- a deep and sincere appreciation for opportunity, and a deep and sincere value of loyalty. Vince Bifferato became a judge young, at age 31, just 5 years after being admitted to the Delaware Bar. He had served a term in the state legislature and just recently joined the Public Defender's staff when in 1968 Governor Charles Terry, a Democrat, nominated him to be a Superior Court Judge. He was subsequently reappointed by Governor Pete du Pont, a Republican, and appointed as Superior Court's Resident Judge for New Castle County in 1992 by then-Governor Mike Castle, another Republican. The bipartisan character of Judge Biff's appointments reflects, in part, the character of Delaware's legal community, but it is also a meaningful tribute to a jurist who has upheld the truest trust of the judicial branch. Judge Bifferato's continuous service on the same court also speaks to the value of loyalty I mentioned earlier. The Superior Court is, to a great extent, Biff's court. He is, as Dick Kirk accurately described him, the Court's rock solid anchor; he is the hard-working, career Superior Court Judge who makes sure things run as they should as efficiently as they can without compromising the high standards of justice and service upon which he insists -- and, I might add, when Biff insists on something, he does so with a certain undeniable authority. Judge Bifferato is active on several committees concerned with court administration; he heads Superior Court's Trial Forum, a continuing legal education and mentoring program that he helped initiate; and he is the judicial representative on the Executive Committee of the Delaware State Bar Association. In addition, Biff is a frequent speaker at forums throughout and beyond Delaware -- from civic association meetings, to students groups from high school to law school, to police- training classes. With all that genuine love of the law, and all that genuine commitment to community and to promoting excellence in his own court and through educational and training programs, it is in talking about family that the light really shines in Biff's eye -- and with good reason. His wife, the former Marie Connor, now Marie Bifferato, Esquire, is subject enough herself for an address to the Senate, and rightly shares Biff's immeasurable pride in three children and, of course, those two perfect granddaughters. Good folks, Mr. President, These judges, Bifferato and Latchum, with 50 years of combined service on the bench. Active in the legal and broader communities; dedicated and loyal in their work as in all aspects of their lives; intelligent, able, and honest. Good judges, good family men, good neighbors. We're lucky to have them in Delaware.