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The Honorable Samuel Der-Yeghiayan to receive Distinguished Alumnus Award
September 25, 2008
Contact: Paul K. Logsdon, director of public relations and publications (417) 865-2815, ext. 7292
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Federal Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan, Chicago, is the recipient of Evangel University’s 2008 Distinguished Alumnus Award. The award will be presented by the Evangel Alumni Association on October 10 during the Homecoming chapel service.
Though born in Syria and raised in Lebanon, Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan calls Springfield, Mo., home. Specifically, Evangel was his first home here in the United States. In 1971, he immigrated to America to attend college with the help of an Assemblies of God missionary in Beirut.
“I am extremely privileged, and at the same time humbled, to be selected as the Distinguished Alumnus for 2008,” Der-Yeghiayan said. “My professional achievements, in large part, are due to the outstanding education and training that I received at Evangel, which was my first home in the United States and will always be my home. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the administrators, faculty and fellow students who embraced me and helped shape my life.”
Der-Yeghiayan graduated from Evangel in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. During his college years he was known as a skilled soccer player. Having lettered all four years, this all-conference player helped to elevate Evangel’s team to national recognition. Der-Yeghiayan met his wife, Becky (Class of ’76), at Evangel.
Der-Yeghiayan’s career path
In 1978, Der-Yeghiayan received his Juris Doctorate from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H. As an honor law graduate, his legal career was launched by serving as an attorney for the United States Department of Justice under the United States Attorney General’s Honors Program.
Der-Yeghiayan served the next 25 years as an attorney or judge with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, in the Justice Department’s Chicago District, with jurisdiction over Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. His various positions included trial attorney (1978-1982), district counsel (1982-2000) and acting district director (1986-1987). He served as a judge with the Department of Justice from 2000-2003.
From 1981-2000, Der-Yeghiayan received Outstanding Performance Ratings 20 consecutive times from different U.S. attorney generals. He was named Outstanding Federal Government Attorney in Chicago in 1986. In 1998, he also received the District Counsel of the Year Award from the commissioner of the INS and the attorney general of the United States.
In 2000, he was appointed as a U.S. immigration judge and was assigned to the Chicago Immigration Court where he carried one of the heaviest caseloads in the immigration court system.
Der-Yeghiayan was nominated by President George W. Bush on March 5, 2003, to be a federal judge on the district court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. He was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 14, 2003, making him the first Armenian immigrant federal judge in the history of the United States.
On the federal bench, he has presided over complex and high profile cases, both civil and criminal. On occasion, he has served as the acting chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Chicago.
Additionally, he has served as a speaker and lecturer, training pro bono attorneys as well as law school, college, high school and elementary students. In 2007, judges from the Republic of Armenia visited his courtroom to study American jurisprudence.