Kansas City School of Law - Pandex Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

Page 26 text:

meetings both before and after his law lecture. During the-se twenty-five years of the law school he has lectured upon the subjects of: B-lackstone's Commentaries. Contracts, Bailments, Domestic Relations, Wills, and Administration of Estates. His work on Wills is a standard authority on this subject, and is used as a text in many law schools, and he had in preparation several other legal publications. We know him best as a lecturer in the Law School, and in this connection 1 cannot use words that will praise him too highly. He was a splendid lec- turer, and as a teacher of the law he was surpassed by no member of the faculty in this or any other law school. He knew the law, and had the rare quality of being able to impart his knowledge to the student in an unsur- passed manner. His courage shone out in his entire political career. As Champ Clark said, he was always on the side of the people. He stood for high ideals and cleanness in American politics, and was on the clean side of every public question. He catered to no pernicious influences. He never sacrificed his manhood for public preferment. He stood four square to all the world, and dared to do what he thought was right, and dared to do what he conceived was his duty. I know that his wife was a great help and inspiration to him in all that he did. He was married in 1904 to Miss Ona Winants. They had no children, but they adopted a son, Hugh Ogle Borland, and took to live with them a little girl, Jessie Knowles. He was devoted to his family, and the goodness of his heart was manifest in every act of his life. He was an optimist, always looking on the bright side, and his life and character may well be emulated by all of us. As was said at the memorial meeting held in the House by the Chaplain: Faith is the rainbow's form Hung on the brow of heaven, The glory of the passing storm, The pledge of mercy given, It is a bright, triumphant arch, Through which the saints to glory march. E. D. ELLISON. ,233

Page 25 text:

william Elgntiminn Enrlanh ILLIAM PATTERSON BORLAND, born in Leavenworth, Kansas, on October 14, 1867, sprang from a family whose lives were closely interwoven with American history. His ancestor, William Pat- terson, came to this country during the Revolutionary War, locating in Maryland, and history records that there was no citizen of that common- wealth who did more constructive work for his state during that war, and the War of 1812, than did William Patterson. William P. Borland came with his family to Kansas City in 1880, re- ceiving his early education in our public schools, attending the Franklin Ward School and the Central High School. He then entered the law office of Pratt, Ferry Sz Hagerman, and after reading law there for a time, was appointed claim agent of the Wyandotet and Northwestern Railway. He had started out with the idea of being a lawyer, and this work never diverted him from his original plans. On the contrary, it was merely a step in his legal education, for after two years of this work, he went to Ann Arbor and graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan, in 1892, as an Honor man, with the degree of LL.B. lt was at this time that a number of young men, fresh from their alma maters, formed a law class for the purpose of continuing their legal studies, and from this was developed the Kansas City School of Law, in which organiza- tion Mr. Borland was most active. g At the beginning in 1895, he was elected Dean, which position he contin- ued to hold until his election to Congress in 1908, when he resigned this active position, on account of his duties in Washington, and he was elected Vice- President of the Law School which position he continued to hold until the time of his death. He never for a moment lost his interest in the Law School, and his heart was wrapped up in the work, and to think of him is to- think of the Kansas City School of Law, There were three characteristics of his, which to my mind, stood out pre-emeninently: his courtesy, his industry and his courage. There was never a time when a student did not have the most courteous treatment from him, and it is reported that in the clash of opinions on the floor of the House of Representatives, in defeat as well as in triumph, he kept his temper, main- tained a judicial attitude and was uniformly courteous. His industry is shown in the vast amount of work that he accomplished. During these last ten years while has he been in Congress, he returned to Kan- sas City in the fall of the year and lectured three times a week, in addition to filling numerous other. speaking engagements, many times speaking at

Page 27 text:

31uhgv Elulin E. liliillipa fi ,Q IIDGIC JOHN H. PHILLIPS, formerly United States District Judge, if and special lecturer in the Law School on t l'he Judiciary Clause of TL. -A the Federal Constitution and Pleading and Practice in the Federal Courts, has passed from our midst. No better testimonial of his life can be otfered than his own aphorisms, which he left with the students at the close of his last lecture: GenfIcmci1.' l leave you the following suggestion, in the form of aphorisms, which I beg you to frame in your memory: The profession you have chosen is among the most exalted that ever engaged the ambition of intelligent men. It belongs essentially to the cate- gory of thc noble sciences. It is a mighty instrument in the hands of a skilled expert, either for widespread mischief, or private and public good. If you sow and plant and cultivate in honor, you may reap and gather in honor. If you sow and plant and cultivate in dishonor, so will you reap and gather. Ceaseless vigilance, persistent and consistent industry are the inexorable conditions of success. ' Common lawyers can be picked up in heaps, for they lie thick about the level vvaysides, but the excellent ones are at the tops of the ragged steeps. Yours, more than any other, is the profession to which the present and posterity must look for the preservation of what is beneficient and cohesive in social organism, and for the security and perpetuation of what is rational in a limited democratic government. If you observe and enforce these things your profession will prove to be :L cornucopia, showering you with golden blessings, and you will make the world all the better for your living in it, ln deference to the expressed wishes of Judge John H. Phillips, his entire lznv library, which is very complete and carefully selected, will be turned over to the Law School by his daughter, Mrs. W. lXl. Fible, although no mention of it is made in the will. Also his otlice desk and chairs will be awarded to some worthy student upon entering into the practice of law. H