Washington and Lee University - Calyx Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

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Professor Staples. THE following is a sketch of the life of Mr. Staples, who has been chosen Professor of Real Property and Commercial Law in Washington and Lee University : Professor Abram Penn Staples was born at Patrick C. H., on August 14, 1858. He was the son of Judge Samuel R. Staples and Mrs. Caro- lina De Jarnette Staples, and a nephew of Judge Waller R. Staples of the Court of Appeals. He attended the public schools in his native county until the age of fifteen years, when he entered the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College at Blacksburg, A a., where he remained two years. He then entered Richmond Col- lege, from which institution he received the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bach- elor of Laws. He was married on the 17th day of September, 1884, to Miss Sallie C. Hunt, and the children of this marriage are three boys and three girls. He represented the counties of Patrick and Henry in the A irginia Senate from the year 18S. ; to 1889, and in 1896 was an elector on the National Demo- cratic ticket, and during that campaign became famous throughout the State as an eloquent speaker. Immediately upon graduation he began the practice of law at his home, at Patrick C. H., in the year 1879, but soon after located permanently at Martins- ville, in Henry county, where he continued the successful practice of his profession until the year 1890, when his superior talents and ever-widening influence as a lawyer, caused him to seek a wider field in the growing and prosperous city of Roanoke, where he became a member of the law firm of Scott Staples. He has displayed the best legal talent in his argument of various cases before the Supreme Court of this State, and the esteem in which he is held by the judges of the Su- preme Court was manifested by their unanimous recommendation to the Board of Trustees of Washington and Lee University to fill a professorship of law in this institution. The Board also had before them the recommendations of the special committee composed of Trustees Attorney-General Anderson, Mr. Lucian H. Cocke, President Denny, and Professor Burks, Dean of the Law School, who had been appointed a committee at a previous meeting of the Board to recommend a professor. Mr. Staples had in addition the endorsement of most of our circuit judges, the bars of Lynchburg, Roanoke, and Southwest A- irginia generally, also of many Richmond lawyers. There can be no question as to the wisdom of our Board of Trustees in select- ing Air. Staples as Professor of Law to succeed Air. A ance. in

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FACULTY

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3ln iJI mnrmm. HORACE E. CARD KILLED IN THE DUQUESNE WRECK DECEMBER 24, 1903 ERNEST C. ZIRKLE DIED AT HIS HOME, FAUQUIER SPRINGS, NOVEMBER 10, 1903 PERCY SIMS WHITE BORN MARCH 24, 1885. DIED AT WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY OCTOBER 24, 1903