Читать книгу The Transformative Years of the University of Alabama Law School, 1966–1970 - Daniel Meador - Страница 8

The School of Law at the University of Alabama in the early twenty-first century has its roots in the late 1960s. In that time, seeds were sown and ideas and programs implanted that have grown and developed in the decades since. Many—perhaps most—of the important features of the School as it now is can be traced to the years 1966–70. Those years mark the transition from the School of the past to the School of the future. They were transformative and represent the founding period for the modern Law School. The pages that follow present an eyewitness account of those years.

They were heady years, exciting and frustrating, with much happening on all fronts. What was accomplished was not done easily. It is unlikely that I recall all the details—after all, it has been forty years—and I will be happy to be corrected if further research or other accounts reveal inaccuracies. In the meantime, this is how I see that time from the vantage point of four decades later.

The published sources for this account are the annual Law School catalogs,[1] the annual reports of the Law School Foundation,[2] and numerous issues of the student newspaper.[3] Additional sources are unpublished memoranda, committee reports, Dean’s annual reports, and the like.[4] Those sources are supplemented by my memory from serving through those years as the School’s dean. Indeed, my memory is the sole source for some of the facts and observations contained here.

Time, not surprisingly, has taken its toll after more than forty years. The ranks of those who served on the faculty during my deanship have greatly thinned. The law alumni with whom I worked most closely are now all gone. The upshot is that living witnesses with firsthand knowledge of the events recounted here, and who might have assisted in my recollections, are few.

Four who did serve on the faculty during that time and who generously undertook to read the manuscript are Wythe W. Holt Jr., Julian B. McDonnell Jr., W. Taylor Reveley III, and L. Vastine Stabler Jr. Also, Fournier J. (Boots) Gale III, a member of the Law Class of 1969, devoted time to reading the manuscript. In the years since, all in different ways have had outstanding legal careers. They made helpful comments and suggestions and refreshed my memory on some points. They helped me relive those long-ago Farrah Hall days. I am most grateful to them. However, I alone am responsible for what is said here.

I express my appreciation to Mary Ketcham and Catherine Lamb, my office assistants, for their essential help in editing and in preparing the manuscript for publication.

1 - University of Alabama Law School Catalogues for 1967, 1968, 1969, and 1970.

2 - University of Alabama Law School Foundation Reports 1967, 1968, and 1969.

3 - The Alabama Law Reporter Vol. I No. I – Vol. III No. I (1967-69).

4 - Unpublished items, or copies thereof, are in possession of the author.