The Murder Of Robert Wone

Joseph Price led a tour for prospective students at the College of William & Mary in 1991, his junior year. Robert Wone was in that tour group, and they met again in the spring of 1992, when the college invited Wone for another visit and matched him with Price as a personal guide. Both young men were interested in politics and law, and they became close friends.

The son of Navy officers, Joe Price grew up in Texas, the Florida Keys, Cape Cod and Japan. The former Eagle Scout became the openly gay president of the College of William & Mary's Student Assembly. He appointed Wone as one of his advisors.

Price earned a law degree at the University of Virginia (later he'd serve as president of the school's Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association), then clerked for Judge Norman Moon of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. He began a career in trademark litigation at Arent Fox, a noted firm in intellectual property rights, where he defended AOL and other corporations in copyright cases.

His pro bono record was as impressive as Wone's. In addition to working for a homeless shelter, Central Union Mission, Price was one of the founders of and general counsel for Equality Virginia. He worked on a number of highly visible gay rights cases. Most notable was Miller vs. Jenkins, in which Lisa Miller, after becoming a devout Baptist, renounced homosexuality and fought for sole custody of the child she gave birth to and had been raising with Janet Jenkins.

The legal rights of gay families were of personal importance to Price.