Journey to a law degree

Tony Foltz's graduation from Temple University's law school last Thursday was a year late.

Then again, Foltz would be the first to say that it's lucky it happened at all.

On April 11, 2010 at about 2 a.m., Foltz, 26, was walking back to his apartment from Center City when a speeding white Subaru hit him as he crossed the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 22d Street and sped off.

With a severe head injury and multiple broken bones in the rest of his body, Foltz was at first not expected to survive and, if he did, whether it would be with permanently debilitating brain damage.

After emerging from a coma, undergoing five major surgeries and months more in rehabilitation, Foltz returned to Temple's law school last fall and completed his degree. Watching him from the audience were Foltz's father, Richard W. Foltz, a partner in the Pepper Hamilton law firm in Center City and, and mother Frances Ryan, a lawyer with a sole practice in Wynnewood. Both parents are also grads of Temple's law school.

In addition to being awarded his law degree, Foltz received the law school's Crossen Award for students who overcame adversity and showed perseverance in earning a law degree.

Sharing the Crossen Award with Foltz was Brian Grubb, of Wernersville in Berks County, who as a Temple undergraduate fell from a loft bed in his off-campus apartment, an accident that left him a quadriplegic.

Foltz plans to take the bar exam after he undergoes one additional surgery to improve his ability to move his right arm.

As for the driver who hit Foltz, Nicholas Hasselback, 23, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in November to three to six years in prison. At the time of the accident, Hasselback, of Ephrata in Lancaster County, was a Temple senior majoring in anthropology and economics. He withdrew after his arrest.

Hasselback is serving his sentence at the state prison at Camp Hill near Harrisburg.