Even before Chief Justice Burger became the twentieth chancellor of Wiliam & Mary in 1986, he had visited Williamsburg and the university on many occasions:  In 1971, as the speaker at the First National Conference of the Judiciary, he had called for the creation of the National Center for State Courts; in 1973 he delivered William & Mary's commencement address and received an honorary doctorate.  He was presented with the John Marshall Award for Excellence in American Legal History by the Marshall-Wythe student chapter of William & Mary's Law School in 1978.  And in 1979, he was the speaker at the university's  Law Day ceremonies.  During the 1980s, several meetings of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, which the Chief Justice chaired, were held in Williamsburg as well.