About 70 people gathered May 3 for the St. Thomas More Society of the Diocese of Wilmington 36th annual dinner at Wilmington Country Club.
The local legal professionals honored attorney Kathleen Duffy Smith with the 2026 Monsignor Paul J. Taggart St. Thomas More Award.
Duffy Smith is a graduate of the University of Delaware and Widener University School of Law. She spent most of her career with the State of Delaware, including working as a Department of Labor unemployment compensation appeals referee.
The society is a fellowship of attorneys committed to the example set by Saint Thomas More, promoting and fostering high ethical principles, assisting in the spiritual growth of its members and encouraging interfaith understanding. The group is dedicated to justice, personal courage and conviction, commitment to law, community and religion, scholarly pursuits, intelligence, honesty and integrity, humility and humor and a record of personal sacrifice for the good of the community.
Those are also among the characteristics required to win the society’s Taggart Award.
St. Thomas More wrote works on governance and in defense of faith. He was beheaded on July 6, 1535, by order of King Henry VIII, whom More had resisted in the matter of the king’s divorce.
The group’s annual dinner has been a significant event over the years, attracting notable speakers and award winners. The list of past speakers includes the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a towering legal figure who drew high marks for his work at speaking engagements. Past winners include Bishops Robert E. Mulvee, Michael A. Saltarelli, W. Francis Malooly and John O. Barres, as well as numerous judges and attorneys.
