punishment. a conclusion that the stable ground that he thought he found early on wasn t proving as stable as he would have liked. stevens was born in 1920 and raised in his beloved hometown of chicago. his family ran the old stevens hotel on michigan avenue until the great depression knocked them out of the business. in between his college studies at the university of chicago and northwestern law school where he finished first in his class he served in the navy during world war ii. he was awarded a bronze star for his work as part of the famous codebreakers stationed in hawaii. in 1947 he did a one year clerkship for justice wiley rutledge, a man stevens would later call a hero. it is perhaps because of this experience that stevens would make sure that he engaged his clerks in the day-to-day operations in the court. that may not sound unusual but in many of the other chambers a lot of work was done by member prowriting as clerks would write memos to the justice for meetings to t