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Photo courtesy of
Lincoln Harris.
Peter Cicchino was a rare combination of activist and scholar. He spent most of his adult life serving the indigent directly and advocating vociferously for the disadvantaged. As a law professor in the final two years of his life, Peter made compelling moral and legal arguments for a society that meets the basic needs of all its members and against insidious discrimination. Through his acts and scholarship, Peter sought to make the world a place that would be, in his words, "safe for love."
Peter passed away on July 8, 2000 after a two-year struggle with colon cancer, one month short of his fortieth birthday.
Before he died, Peter asked that a foundation be established in his memory, with proceeds collected to be split evenly between two causes that were close to Peter's heart:
- The Peter Cicchino Awards for Outstanding Advocacy in the Public Interest at American University's Washington College of Law
- The Peter Cicchino Youth Project (PCYP) at the Urban Justice Center in New York City.
Thanks to successful fundraising in the fall of 2000 and the generosity of people who knew and loved Peter, the Foundation has been able to create an endowment and make modest distributions in early 2001.
"Our lives are the only things that are completely ours. The kind of life we make is the most important work, the single most significant project we will ever undertake. I suppose what I am trying to say is that in my own life as I have struggled with the question of what makes a good and happy human life, I have become ever more convinced that struggling to secure the conditions for a decent human life for others is a large part of the answer."
Peter M. Cicchino 1960 - 2000
