NEIL THOMAS PROTO, ’67, has stood up for Indigenous populations, challenged the nation’s railroad system, and even taken on Disney — stopping it from opening a Virginia theme park near Civil War landmarks.
The now-retired environmental litigator built a stellar career fighting corporate greed and pressing for social justice, both in private practice and as an appellate attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice. Along the way, he landed coveted teaching assignments at Yale and Georgetown universities and penned books on topics ranging from Three Mile Island to baseball.
Proto, a first-generation college student, says Southern offered a springboard to his success and nurtured the values he acquired growing up in a working-class family in New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood.
On campus, he studied history and political science and, as a senior, served as the Student Government Association president. His first big legal win began while he was still in law school at George Washington University, where he chaired Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (SCRAP). The court ultimately concluded that SCRAP had standing to sue.
It was a landmark decision. SCRAP challenged the nation’s railroads and sued the federal government, leading to the first Supreme Court case to consider the National Environmental Policy Act in 1973.
Proto would go on to fight the construction of highways, shopping malls, coal-fired utility plants, and other projects that threatened to harm Indian reservations, squander natural resources, or tread on civil rights.
Always mindful of his Elm City roots, Proto is deeply committed to ensuring other Southern students have the same opportunities to influence their communities and the world. Over the last 10 years, he has established five endowments toward achieving that goal. The funding has supported everything from scholarships for aspiring lawyers to programs that promote civic engagement and preserve New Haven’s political history — including a mayoral archive housed in Hilton C. Buley Library.
Beyond his monetary gifts, Proto has spoken on campus and spent time personally mentoring his scholarship recipients, emphasizing the importance of values embodied in Southern’s mission — including fairness, justice, and perseverance.
“It’s about elevating those values and saying to students: those values will count later in life,” says Proto.
He says, it’s a philosophy he shared with the late Southern President Emeritus Michael J. Adanti, a friend and major influence.
Proto says he knew that if there was ever an opportunity to have a place on campus bearing his name and portrait, he wanted it to be inside the Michael J. Adanti Student Center.
Speaking at the center during the Oct. 30 dedication of the Neil Thomas Proto Reading Room, scholarship recipient Brooke Mercaldi, ’20, credited Proto with guiding her toward a career in environmental law. Mercaldi, who now works as a staff attorney with the Marine Affairs Institute and Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program at Roger Williams University, says Proto instilled in her the importance of acting ethically, challenging oneself, and acknowledging and appreciating “the people and places that shape us along the way.”
“So as current and future students sit here in the Neil Thomas Proto Reading Room, I hope they reflect on what matters to them and drives them to do good in this world,” she says.
Make a gift to support Southern students.
Please write “Neil Thomas Proto” in the memo section of the check or the designation line of the online gift form to support the scholarship established by Proto.
Read more from the Spring 2026 issue of Southern Alumni Magazine.
