The Faculty Lounge

Professor Kiah Duggins

Professor Kiah Duggins, who was going to teach at Howard Law School next fall, was tragically killed in the American Airlines crash. She was educated at Harvard Law School, and she worked on "unconstitutional policing and money bail practices in Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, DC." She was 30 years old.

William E. Leuchtenburg

He passed away in January 2025, at 102 years old. Leunchtenburg taught at Columbia University and then taught at the UNC history department. He produced The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932  (1958) and Franklin D. Roovesult and the New Deal, 1932-1940 (1963), and his last book that was published last year, Patriot Presidents: From George Washington to John Quincy Adams.

Bernie Burk tipped off to this.

Stephan Thernstrom (1934-2025)

I am very sorry to report Stephan Thernstrom was a Harvard history professor. Thernstrom was a huge figure -- particularly Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in the 19th Century and The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970 (1964) and The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970 (1973). I believe read Property and Progress during freshman year. It was a magnificent achievement (obviously). I met because Professor Thernstrom was chair of the History of American Civilization. (That was so exciting because I was a Ph.D. in History of American Civilization.)  I didn't any courses with Thernstrom, unfortunately. 

George L. Priest (1947-2024)

I am particularly sorry to hear about the passing of Professor George L. Priest. He was an emeritus professor at Yale Law School, and he was a professor at the University of Puget Sound, Buffalo, UCLA, and the University of Chicago. He was a graduate of Yale University and University of Chicago Law School. He shaped generations of law schools regarding antitrust and tort law, among many other fields. The festschrift was in September 2024. He will be missed. 

In Memoriam: Richard Gershon

In sad news, Richard Gershon, who had a long career in legal academia and served as dean at Mississippi Law, Charleston Law, and Texas Wesleyan Law  passed away on December 9.   He was 67.

In Memoriam: Alex Geisinger

We lost a loved one last week. Professor Alex Geisinger, my friend and Drexel University Kline Law colleague, passed away, way too young. Our whole community is in mourning.

Alex and I became friends back when he was teaching at Valpo and I was at Alabama. We were conference buddies who always made sure to schedule a catchup breakfast. Then in a stroke of good fortune, Drexel hired both of us to start a new law school in Philly.

He was an amazing colleague, teacher, mentor, scholar, friend. As people here at the law school talk about him, again and again Alex is described as the “best” or the “most” or the “finest.” He was that. He was a person without ego, generous but clear eyed. He loved to write law review articles and renovate houses. He was my trusted advisor as a dean. He spoke Spanish and Italian and loved his espresso. And he and I could talk for hours on end about CBGB’s, Community Benefit Agreements, or his son Michael.  

Every day he made the world a little better.  As Jeremy Telman put it in his beautiful memorial post, the best people leave. We miss Alex immensely. 

 

In Memoriam: JoAnne Epps

I've just learned the incredibly sad news that Temple University Acting President JoAnne Epps has passed away. She was a member of Temple's law faculty and served as dean of the law school from 2008 to 2016 and provost from 2016 to 2021.

In Memoriam: John Carroll

In sad news,  former Cumberland Law Dean John Carroll passed away on August 14 at age 79.  He led Cumberland for 13 years, from 2001 until 2014.  In his prior life, he worked as a civil rights lawyer at the Southern Poverty Law Center and served as SPLC's legal director before becoming a magistrate judge in the Middle District of Alabama.   He was a good man and I feel his passing with particular sadness.

In Memoriam: Betsy McCormick

With great sadness I have to report the passing of a dear friend, Elizabeth McCormick.  Betsy and I were public defenders in Philadelphia in the 1990's.  She started teaching an Asylum and Human Rights Clinic at the University of Connecticut in 2000, visited at Cornell Law in 2004, and joined the law faculty of the University of Tulsa in 2005.  Over time she not only represented clients and trained lawyers, she served in leadership as Associate Dean for Experiential Education and for Academic Affairs.  Incredibly (to me at least), in 2021 while battling ALS , she served as Interim Dean of the law school. 

Betsy was the best of academia, the best of the bar, and the best of human beings.  She is already missed. 

Richard B. Bernstein (1956-2023)

Richard B. Bernstein has passed away. It was my pleasure working with Bernstein. He was a most important and most humble person. Joanne Freeman and Annette Gordon-Reed have excellent biographies today.

Over at legal history blog R.B. Bernstein has funeral service this Friday at 12-1 p.m.

At Williamjames Hoffer is posting R.B. Bernstein's obit notice H-Law.

In Memoriam: Steve Shiffrin

In sad news, Steve Shiffrin, professor at Cornell, passed away on May 29.  He served on the Cornell faculty for 36 years.  

In Memoriam: Mitchell Engler

In very sad news, Mitch Engler, Professor at Cardozo  Law, passed away on November 4.  He served on the Cardozo Law faculty for 23 years.  Engler was 58.

 

 

 

In Memory of Sherry Colb

Sherry F. Colb, the C.S. Wong Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, passed away this morning. Her husband and colleague Michael Dorf has posted a loving tribute here.

 

Professor Colb will be missed by so many.

 

May her memory be a blessing.

In Memory of Browne Lewis

Browne Lewis, the Dean of NCCU Law, died suddenly while attending a conference on June 2, 2022. Here is the announcement from the NCCU Chancellor:

It is with profound sadness that I announce the sudden passing of Atty. Browne C. Lewis, dean of the North Carolina Central University (NCCU) School of Law. Dean Lewis was attending a conference in Colorado with colleagues at the time of her untimely death on Thursday, June 2, 2022.

An accomplished legal scholar, attorney and author, Dean Lewis joined the Eagle family on July 1, 2020, and immediately made an indelible impact on the School of Law. Her vision was clear from Day One in leading the school as one that provides unique opportunities for diverse, talented future attorneys to be practice-ready practitioners in their chosen legal careers. She accumulated numerous accomplishments for the university and School in Law in her short, nearly two years at its helm. She began laser focused on reaccreditation with the American Bar Association (ABA), which was approved in full compliance with the ABA Standards in November 2020. Equally important, enrollment has consistently increased year-over-year at a time when other law schools saw steady decreases. Additionally, Bar passage rates have been above average.

Under her leadership, the School of Law received a number of gifts from corporations and foundations and prestigious law internships and fellowships have been awarded to students. This includes a transformational $5 million contribution from Intel Corporation that created the NCCU-Intel Tech Law and Policy Center—the first at an HBCU and the only tech and law policy center that focuses on technology disparities and social justice.

Dean Lewis was extremely passionate about social justice and its intersection with law. I encourage you to read an interview with her that was published by Attorney at Law Magazine in March 2022. In it, Dean Lewis shared,

The key value I want to imprint on the law school is overcoming the impossible through hard work, perseverance, and tenacity. It is important to overcome adversity and realize that you can accomplish any goal even if you do it in bite-sized pieces. I’m one of 12 children from a family in a small country town in Louisiana. I grew up knowing that you have to persevere, overcome adversity, and keep pushing forward. Likewise, NCCU School of Law is one of only six HBCU law schools in the country. We’re the underdog pushing forward.

We will share details in the coming days regarding how we will formally celebrate Dean Lewis’ life and contributions to NCCU.

I would ask that you pray for members Dean Lewis’ family, as well as students, faculty and staff in the School of Law and the entire Legal Eagle community.

Browne Lewis was a cherished national colleague and friend. The shock of her death is considerable.

 

Richard S. Dunn (1928-2022)

Professor Richard S. Dunn passed away on January 24, 2022. He was a historian specializing 17th and 18th century America. He had taught for decades at the University of Pennsylvania. He wrote Puritans and Yankees: The Winthrop Dynasty of New England, 1630-1717 (1962), The Age of Religious Wars, 1559-1715 (1971), Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713 (1972), four volumes on William Penn for University of Pennsylvania Press, and A Tale of Two Plantations: Slave Life and Labor in Virginia and Jamaica (2014). After his wife passed away (Mary Maples-Dunn a distinguished historian and former President of Smith College), he was living in Winston-Salem, NC. Last time I saw, he was video on Sugar and Slaves on its 50th anniversary.  Boston Globe has his obituary. And the Philadelphia Inquirer.

He was a great man.

Rennard Strickland (1940-2021)

Rennard Strickland "a legal historian of Osage and Cherokee heritage, died January 5, 2021, in Norman at the age of 80, where he was the Senior Scholar in Residence at the University of Oklahoma Law Center. Strickland, a native of Muskogee, was considered a pioneer in introducing Indian Law into the University's legal curriculum.  ... Strickland spent much of his career in Legal Education as a Dean of various law schools, served as the Dean at four law schools including the University of Tulsa, Southern Illinois University, Oklahoma City University, and the University of Oregon. He was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School in 1980, at Florida University Law School in 1983, and at Syracuse University Law School in 2001."

Norman Transcript January 2021.

Stephen B. Oates (1936-2021)

Stephen Oates who taught history at University of Massachusetts -- Amherst for many years. I was familiar with Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's Fierce Rebellion (1975) and With Malice Toward None: A Life Of Abraham Lincoln (1977).

Gary B. Nash (1933-2021)

Gary B. Nash was a historian of early America and a member of UCLA’s history department for more than 50 years. Born in July 27, 1933, Nash earned his undergraduate degree at Princeton University.  Upon completing his doctorate at Princeton in 1964, he taught to UCLA in 1966 to 1994, when he retired.

I thought his The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution (1979) was the best work.  He was a finalist Pulitzer Prize for History for Urban Crucible. His others works includes Quakers and Politics, Pennsylvania, 1681-1726 (1968), Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia's Black Community, 1720-1840 (1988), and many others. He was a great historian.

In Memory of Stephen R. Parks (1940-2021), Curator of Osborn Collection at Yale's Beinecke Library

I share the news of the passing of my dear friend Steve Parks, the inaugural curator of the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection of the Beneicke Library at Yale.  Here is an except from Steve's obituary published in the New Haven Register.

He was a 1961 graduate of Yale College, majoring in art history. He later earned a PhD from King's College, Cambridge, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. In 1967, he was appointed inaugural Curator of the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection of the Beinecke Library at Yale, where until 2004 he helped develop one of the most significant collections in the world of early modern British literary and historical manuscripts. A resident of New Haven, Connecticut for nearly of all his adult life, for many years he also enjoyed writing as wine critic for the New Haven Register.

Steve was an avid collector, beginning as a child with stamps, and later turning to books, ceramics, and medals. As a graduate student in Cambridge, he began a life-long bibliophilic and decorative arts love affair with the English Gothic Revival. The Stephen R. Parks Collection of Augustus Welby Pugin and the Gothic Revival is now held by the Sheridan Libraries of Johns Hopkins University. Many objects from his decorative arts and furniture collection now reside in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Yale University Art Gallery.

He was also an active and energetic member of several societies and clubs, including the Athenaeum in London, the Century Association and the Grolier Club in New York, the Club of Odd Volumes in Boston, and the Johnsonians. In addition to being a lifelong member of Manuscript, a Yale senior society, and serving in leadership positions there, Steve was Librarian of the Elizabethan Club at Yale for 44 years, energetically developing its collection of rare books and manuscripts. He served for 35 years on the Club's Board of Incorporators, as its chair from 2009-2016, and was elected President of the Club (1994-1996). He was made an Honorary Trustee of the Yale Library Associates for his contributions to Yale's libraries and was awarded the inaugural Elizabethan Club Medal for Distinguished Service.

Steve had a special gift for friendship, one that he shared generously with generations of Yale students and colleagues for more than fifty years.

The full notice, including information about a memorial service to be held Friday, July 30 in New Haven, is here.

The Osborne Collection, which Steve curated, has amazing holdings in English history, ranging from 1280 to 1956, so anyone who ever did law-related archival work in the Beinecke related to this period has Steve to thank.

Steve was a central figure in my time at Yale (and after), uniquely bringing together the worlds of students, faculty, staff, visiting scholars, fascinating alums who passed through town, and even his own family, when his mother came to visit and then live in New Haven. There are generations of Yale students who shared a lovely meal or conversation with Steve in New Haven, New York, London, Cambridge, or Paris.

To know Steve was to be welcomed into a world of quick wit and fascinating ideas, objects, books, people. I will miss him very much.

image source: here

Jack Weinstein (1921-2021)

This news for Columbia Law School is that Jack Weinstein has died. He was 99 years old.  He was a federal judge district court (Eastern New York) appointed by President Lyndon B.  Johnson and before that professor at Columbia Law School.