Harvard Law School - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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DEDICATIO ALPH JACKSON BAKER is a Pennsylvanian by birth and training. He went to Swarth- moreiCollege and then to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he received the LL.B. degree in 1911. After Law School, Baker taught for three years at the Pennsylvania Law School. Then he began an extensive period in active practice. He was partner in a firm in Harrisburg, Penn- sylvania, where he did much work in the fields of corporations, interstate commerce, and trusts. With his prac- tice, though, he found time for schol- He became a member of the Ameri- can Law Institute, and soon was asked to be an advisor for the preparation of the Restatement of Trusts, for which Professor Austin W. Scott was the Reporter. arly work. At meetings of the Trusts Advisors, it was the common experience that after all the others had felt that they had covered cz problem rather fully and adequately, Ralph Baker would begin to ask questions. One question would follow an- other, and gaps in the analysis and treatment would be disclosed. Baker did not always have the answers, but he could ask many times as many questions as any of the others. ln 1932, Baker gave up his successful prac- tice and began his career of twenty-six years a member of the Harvard Law School Faculty. Dur- ing this period he has regularly taught Corpora- tions and Trusts. His courses have not been places where ground was covered. But they have been a remarkable educational experience, showing one student generation after another how much there is left in a problem after others have given it a thorough squeeze. By exhausting a handful of cases, Baker could teach a whole course. lt has been a fascinating experience for many students, not likely to be duplicated by many other teachers. Slight of build, quiet of speech, penetrating of mind, Ralph Baker has been a unique and great teacher. His colleagues and students look forward to his continued scholarly work.

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DEDICATIO EORGE KNOWLES GARDNER was born in Worcester. He went to Harvard College, and then to Harvard Law School, where he re- ceived the LL.B. degree in 1914. He was one of the editors of Volume 27 of the Law Review. For fourteen years after leaving Law School, Gardner was in active law practice in Boston. During much of this period, however, he whet- ted his appetite for teaching by conducting evening classes in Boston. ln Septem- ber, 1928, he became a member of the Harvard Law Faculty, where he is now completing thirty years of teaching. His teaching was distinguished by an effort to search out and formulate the basic princples of his subiect, to instill in his students a conception of the underlying logical frame- work of the law. Along with his teaching, George Gardner has been a prolific producer of scholarly writings. A complete bibliography would fill this page. Many of his articles have been outstanding con- tributions to the fields of legal education, and civil liberties, among others. But if none of the rest had been written, there is one which alone would have warranted a great reputation, This is An Inquiry into the Principles of the Law of Contracts, published in the Harvard Law Re- view in 1932. This has been widely hailed as one of the most basic and trenchant legal ar- ticles ever written, and it has been read and pondered over by many thousands of law stu- dents since it appeared. ln recent years, Professor Gardner has taught in the fields of Admiralty, Insurance and Local Government Law. His experiences in the Town of Hingham gave him especial qualifications for the latter subiect. He will live in Hingham after his retirement, and will carry with him the high regard and best wishes of his Faculty col- leagues and a host of students.