MSU Law Mourns the Loss of Professor Emeritus Mario A. Ceresa

The MSU College of Law is saddened to announce the death of Professor Emeritus Mario A. Ceresa, who died on Thursday, April 2, 2015, after battling cancer.

Ceresa was born on March 3, 1932, in Puerto Padre, in eastern Cuba. He attended the Colegio de Bel and then the University of Havana Law School, where he graduated with a Doctor in Law in 1956. He received the prestigious “National Award Ricardo Dolz y Arango” and a Presidential appointment to the position of public defender. He served as a public defender for ten years, finally leaving Cuba when it became clear he would not be allowed to practice law unless he joined the revolution. He boarded his family on a midnight TWA flight, leaving everything else behind. 

He landed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, first working in the Willow Run assembly plant and then working at the University of Michigan Law Library as a library page. He completed his Master of Library Science in 1970, and accepted the position of library director and assistant professor with the Detroit College of Law that same year. He taught comparative law and international law courses. His final examinations were deceptively simple (“You are the Judge. . .”) and measured the students’ true understanding of all of the issues (“Explain how you would decide, and why. . .”).

In his 30-year tenure as library director, his accomplishments were legend. He started his career by overseeing a 12,500-square-foot addition to Detroit facility, and ended his career by overseeing a new 42,000-square-foot library in East Lansing, Michigan. He was an innovator and regularly on the forefront of technology.

In 1983 he decided to link the library’s two computers, so he coaxed the janitor into laying a coaxial cable, hidden on top of bookcases. He went on to wire three networks and build several computer labs, purchase the first online integrated library catalog, and subscribe to all of the “new” databases like Westlaw and Lexis, but he never turned his back on tradition. He also built up the print collection by adding over 70,000 volumes, joined the GPO Depository program, and made sure the Library owned every title identified in the accreditation guidelines.      

At any point in his career, Ceresa considered his family his biggest accomplishment. Every day he would come to work with a laugh and a story about his children, the boat picnics, the movies (ranging from Top Gun to Little Woman) and his grandson who wanted a “happycopter” for Christmas. Big of heart and generous of spirit, everyone counted as “family” for Mario. Everyone at the law college has a different “Mario” story, down to the next generation.

“He acted surprised with every ‘peek-a-boo,’” observed one Bring Your Child to Work aluma.  “I loved coming to work to see Mario.”

He is survived by his wife, Marica; his children: Mario Junior, John, Patricia, ’86, Maria, Deris, and Robert; and his many beloved grandchildren.

Last Updated: April 13, 2015