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

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SENATOR CHAMBERLAIN that position at the Kentucky State Uni- ei-sity. William R. Vance, 95, whose career as instructor here and for one year Acting Dean, Dean of the Law School ol George Washington University, and pro- fessor in the Yale Law School, has been so brilliant, will in September become Dean at the University of Minnesota. A. H. Throckmorton, 1900, of the law fac- ulty of Indiana University, was for many years Dean at Center College, Kentucky. Judge R. M. Venable, of the class of 1 868, is a member of the Law faculty of the University of Maryland, and W. Goodwin Williams, 94, has recently be- come professor of Common Law at Louisiana State University. Harry St. George Tucker, B. L., ' 76, followed in the footsteps of his father as professor at Washmgton and Lee, 1897-99, and Dean, 1899-1902. But greatest of them all, perhaps, is Charles A. Graves, ' 73, Law School, and our own Martin Parks Burks, have proved themselves no less able teachers than their predecessors. It is but natural that a school having teachers of such caliber as were these men should have produced great teachers, and that has been the case. Not only have the alumni of the Washington and Lee Law School received honor as teachers m their Alma Mater, but many of them have added power to the law faculties of other colleges. A list of Deans of American Law Schools a year or two ago showed Wash- ington and Lee third in the number of her alumni who were at the head of law schools, only Harvard and Wisconsin out- ranking her. The list has now somewhat changed, but today Judge Thomas Hugh Somerville, B. L., ' 72, is Dean of the Law faculty of the L ' niversity of Mississippi, while Judge Lyman Chalkley, ' 89, holds SENATOR POINDEXTER

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Virginia legislator and member of the Virginia Convention of 1861, later a judge in Missouri; William A. Seay, Law professor in Louisiana State Uni- versity, Judge of the United States Dis- trict Court, and Minister to Bolivia; Roijcrl Willie. Attorney-General of West nginia; John J. Davis, member of the Virginia and West Virginia legislatures, and Congressman from West Virginia; Henry M. Matthews, Attorney-General and Governor of West Virginia; Robert M. Mayo, Congressman from Virginia; James B. Sever, Member of Congress Irom Virginia and later Judge of the United States Court in the 1 errilory of Wyoming; Alphonso C. Avery, Judge of the Superior Court of North Carolina; Adam C. Snyder, Judge of the Court of Appeals of West Virginia; General Scott Ship, for many years Superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute, and many other great and distinguished men. The good work of the Law School in training young men was continued with unabated vigor after its union, in 1866, with Washington College. It has always been guided by the ablest teachers, and a list of its professors would in itself be a roll of great men. Upon Judge Brockenbrough ' s resignation in 1873 Judge Tucker became Dean of the school, remaining at its head until hii dualh iii I8 7. Abler pens than mine have paid tribute to Judge Tucker, and it is unnecessary that I should say more of him than to quote the words of one whose fortune it was to study law under him: When in 1872-3 I was one of his law students, he was incomparably the most perfect instructor, in all r.-s|)ecls, that I, cither as a boy or man, have e er known. He was clear, concise, and entertaining as a lecturer, and yel as full and complete as it was practicable to be with students; his methods ol instruction obtained the best results from the clever as well as from the dull student. In later years Charles A. Graves, William McLaughin. Judges Bolivar Christian, Hugh W. Sheffey, and Waller R. Staples, of the Virginia Court of Appeals, Harry St. George I ' ucker, [ohn W. Davis and William R. Vance, themselves alumni of the il-.NATOK OWIiN

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professor of law at tlif University of Vir- ginia, who ga f so many years of tireless effort to our own University as professor and as Dean of the Law Scliool. Among the alumni of Washmgton and Lee ha c been many Governors, and of them, four — William A. McCorkle, of West Virginia; Charles T. O ' Ferraii, of Virginia; L. V. Stephens, of Missouri, and Murphy J. Foster, of Louisiana, served simultaneously. The three first V ' J i W named received their legal training here, V B| i k while Governor Foster, of Louisiana. V B K oriiy tl € academic school. J H H B 1-1. Hall the alumnus to I ' .onored with a governorship, the Louisiana Democrats having chosen him in a recent [irimarv as the next occupant of the guber- II, lion. il ( li.ur. In Its list ol Judges of Superior Courts of the arious states few law schools equal Washington and Lee. Joseph Rucker Lamar, apointed Irom the Chief Justiceship of the Supreme Court of Georgia to the highest tribunal in the world, heads the roll of living Judges. Hon. Seth Shepard, Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia; J. Harvey McLeary. formerly Attorney-General of Texas, then Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Montana, and now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Porto Rico; Judges John R. Tyson, of .Alabama; J. P. Hobson, of Kentucky; M. M. Neill, of Tennessee; S. L. Mestre at, ol Pennsybania; Frank H. Rudkin, of Washington; S. G. Whittle, of Virginia. Luther L. Hall and H. L. Dufour, of Louisiana, and A. Flunter Boyd, of Maryland; have gone out of the Washington and Lee Law School to adorn the highest seats of the American bench. The legislative halls of the nation have time and again numbered among their members graduates of this institution. Forty-two representatives, at least, from lourteen states have been Washington and Lee men, of whom about half were graduates ol the Law Department. In the present House are Fergusson, of New Mexico, first repre- sentative from the new slate; Da is, of West Virginia; Flood and Hay, of Virginia, and Slayden, of Texas, from the law school, with Mays, of Morida, from the Academic Department. James F. Lppes, D. Gardner Tyler and 1 larry St. George Tucker are CONGRESSMAN SLA ' iDli.N 20