University of Texas School of Law - Peregrinus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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10 -Parents ' Night Out

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Si.? ™ . -Pineal. Good sense, sound ■d «War wetaketheseso —«i m Page ' s work that we ii ft ! tcrws how rare such scholarship is. B Ln Review No. 7(1? -o-toyear ' sSymposiumtote edautuquelyfittrngceleto- leader into a nationally recognized institu- tion. Thanks to Dean Keeton ' s foresight, the student editors of the Law Review gained lasting editorial and financial inde- pendence. Finally, in three-quarters of a century, no one has approached the Dean in sheer numbers of contributions to the Review. From his three student comments in 1930 to his tribute to Professor Parker Fielder fifty-five years later, he wrote thirty- one articles and reviewed five books for this publication. His further contributions to and influence upon other writings as a stu- dent editor, faculty advisor, and colleague are incalculable. The University of Texas has accorded many honors to this living legend, who served on the faculty for all but six years from 1932 until 1995. The editors of the Review dedicated their August 1974 issue to him up on his retirement from twenty-five years as Dean, with tributes from Justice Lewis Powell, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Joe Greenhill, attorney Harry Reasoner, and Professors Marshall S. Shapo, John W. Wade, Charles Alan Wright, George Schatzki, and Clarence Morris. These reminiscences tell of Keeton ' s successful battles for racial toler- ance and academic freedom at The Univeristy of Texas, his path-breaking scholarship in diverse areas of tort law, and his public contributions ranging from help- ing Texas draft a proposed new state consti- tution to heading the American Association of Law Schools. His colleagues recount his remarkable leadership skill, while his stu- dents marvel at his pedagogical creativity, and all emphasize his unshakable integrity and unfailing generosity. The End of an Era: Page Keeton Retires Townes Hall Notes, Fall 1995 by Dean M. Michael Sharlot The decision of W. Page Keeton — the greatest Dean The University of Texas School of Law has ever had — to retire marks the end of an era. Page had a story- book career that puts Horatio Alger to shame. Coming out of what we would now call a seriously deprived background in East Texas, he put himself through the University and then the Law School, gradu- ating in 1931. He then arranged for his brothers to have the advantages of higher education. His devotion to his family is demonstrated by the wonderful children and grandchildren who have been inspired by his example. His personal kindness is leg- endary. Many a graduate can tell of an emergency loan from the Dean that made it possible to pay rent or finish a semester. He received his BA and LLB as combined degrees from the University in 1931. He joined the faculty in 1932, and served the Law School continuously with two excep- tions. During World War II, he was Chief Counsel, Fuel Division, Office of Price Administration, and Assistant Chief Counsel, Petroleum Administration for War from 1942 to 1945. From 1946 thhrough 1949, he was Dean of the University of Oklahoma School of Law. He received an SJD from Harvard in 1936 and his LLD (Honorary) from Southern Methodist University in 1974. Page became Dean of the Law School in 1949, a position he held for twenty-five years. His tenure as our Dean is the longest in the School ' s history but involved much more than longevity. He arrived at a school that was not readily distinguishable from most other state schools, and laid the foun - dation for its transformation into an institu- tion of the first rank in American legal edu- cation. His extraordinary time with us as Dean and Professor should be called, by anal- ogy to Queen Victoria, The Keetonian Age. His impact was incomparable. He searched out and hired great talent from other schools and from practice. He initiat- ed our earliest efforts at obtainig significant private subsidies from alumni and others, providing the margin of excellence that now distinguishes Texas. It was during his tenure as Dean that both the Law School Foundation and the Law Alumni Association were created. After stepping down as Dean, he contin- ued to teach for the next twenty-one years. Ernest E. Smith, who succeeded him as Dean in 1974, states that Page Keeton easi- ly ranks among the greatest Deans that any law school has ever had. Page ' s efforts brought Texas into the top ranks of the law Schools in the country. John F. Sutton, Jr., 1941, who was Dean from 1979 to 1984, says, Everyone knows that during a deanship of twenty-five years our affable, hard-hitting, lovable, astute, aggressive Dean Page Keeton was instrumental in changing the status of our good regional law school into that of a leading national law school, and that along the way he willingly skirmished with anyone — politicians, university administrators, or others — who intentional- ly or unintentionally tended to slow his progress. Everyone knows that. UT Eecutive Vice President and Provost Mark G. Yudof [now the President of the University of Minnesota], who was Dean from 1984 until 1994, says, Page taught all of us on the faculty that it is possible to achieve excellence while nurturing civility, respect and community. Page Keeton performed all of the duties of a faculty member superlatively. He was an enormously effective and appreciated teacher, a scholar of national reputation, and a person who provided highly esteemed ser- vice to his community, his state, and his nation. We — alumni, students, and faculty — are all so much richer for being a part of an institution on which Page Keeton has placed his indelible stamp. On a numbr of occations Page Keeton stood up against powerful political forces inside and outside the University when he believed academic freedom or civil rights were in jeopardy. The ties he built with alumni and leaders of the judiciary, bar, and legislature served the School well in its process of transformation into a national law school. Every Dean we have had since — and we have been blessed with many tal- ented and devoted ones — has operated with the knowledge that this was Page ' s school. We could only hope to lay another course of bricks on the ambitious and true foundation that Page Keeton has created. A truly great man has been lost, but the memory of his works lives on in his family, his students, his friends and colleagues, and in this institution that will bear his stamp for- ever. W. Page Keeton - 9

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