The timing of Ogletree’s death—on August 4, former President Barack Obama’s birthday—is especially significant, given that, as one of Harvard University Law School’s pioneering Black faculty, he taught Michelle and Barack Obama during their respective time in law school. Ogletree continued to serve as a friend and mentor to the Obamas in their post-Harvard careers, and those of others. “On campus, people would always talk about this Professor Ogletree and how supportive he was,” wrote the former president. Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, counted Ogletree as one of her most important and impactful mentors, someone who “inspired legions of students to seek to improve our criminal justice system and make our world a better place.”