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

Page 11 text:

I jHnrfin I)ni1i0 5SurUs An Appreciation HE service which the late President Wilson rendered to Washington and Lee was of so varied and valuable a character that it would be well-nigh impossible to say that any one achievement of his did most to advance the cause and the work of this university. From his own utterances, it is believed that he, in his discriminating judgment, thought the choosing and securing of Martin Parks Burks for one of the chairs of the Law School was second to no other official accomplishment. Had President Wilson deemed the material advantage the one chiefly to be con- sidered in the selection of a law profess or for his university, then from thai viewpoint alone would the selection of Mr. Burks have been a most excellent one. The splendid legal equipment of Mr. Burks as a practitioner and his successes before the courts; his clarifying and able treatise analyzing and applying the Virginia laws respecting the Separate Estates of Married Women — a subject which, when he wrote upon it, was regarded by courts and lawyers alike as being in a chaotic and confused state; his numerous illuminating discussiors of technical legal questions through the Virginia Laiv Register, and the highly satisfactory character of his work as official reporter of the State ' s highest court — were assurmg proofs of his qualification as a law teacher. These, coupled with a ripe scholarship, the love of the student for study, and the capacity to forcefully announce and impart his findings, were so fully recognized by and known to his brethren at the bar as to leave no doubt that in the new- field his work would be speedily productive of splendid and lasting returns. This opinion as to what he would accomplish was unanimous — he alone being distrustful. That the opinion so widely entertained was justified, is daily attested by the fact that no young attorneys take higher rank upon coming to the bar than do those bearing the impress of his training. His deep interest in his students is very personal, too; and none of his boys, should there be a failure of one to creditably pass the State Bar examination, would feel a keener disap- pointment than would Daddy Burks, — as he is affectionately called. No doubt this loyalty to and pride in his boys is accountable largely for the love and esteem of these young men for him. But there is further reason for their affection and respect, and further cause for gratification over his selection, aside from that of Mr. Burks ' legal attainments. Young men, more than almost any class, esteem fair play, and they appreciate it as much in a professor as they do in their fellows in athletic contests. The men at Washington and Lee know that Mr. Burks plays fair : if he sets them hard tasks, they know he does the same for himself; he may require faithful work as the price of his esteem — but he re-