Dean's Column

WHERE GREATNESS IS LEARNED

You may have already seen West Virginia University's new slogan "Where Greatness Is Learned" in a television spot, in an advertisement in the newspaper for a University event, or on one of the banners displayed on campus. The slogan captures a truism that West Virginia University has provided the educational opportunity to enable individuals to fully develop their innate abilities and talents.

Quite by coincidence, the new slogan for West Virginia University is very similar to a conversation that I recently had with a good friend of the College of Law. During the course of our conversation it was noted that Ken Gray, a member of the Class of 1969, was the at the rank of Brigadier General when he retired from the Judge Advocates General Corps and that John Chambers of the Class of 1974 was now President and Chief Executive Officer of Cisco Systems. As we talked about the success of other of our graduates, we both lamented that there had not been a more organized attempt to collect and preserve information about our graduates' lives, careers, interesting highlights and sidelights. As we ended our conversation, I resolved that I would make a conscientious effort to solicit the help of our alumni in such a project and, in fact, it had been my intent to send a letter to our alumni asking for their help in sharing with us matters of interest and helping us to collect information on others who may not respond to our request.

For reasons that were explained in the Dean's Column which appeared in last month's West Virginia Lawyer, what I had hoped would be a project for last summer has now turned into one which I hope to pursue sometime during this academic year. For example, while I knew Paul Bowles, Class of 1949, as an adjunct on our faculty who taught Coal, Oil and Gas for a number of years, it was only recently I learned that he flew as the wing man for Chuck Yeager. Just recently Mark Kauffelt sent me an article about Melville Davisson Post by J. Bottum who begins the article, "There is a case to be made that the Uncle Abner stories – the 22 Tales of Virginia Hill written by Melville Davisson Post from 1911 to 1928 – are among the finest mysteries ever written." The article it noted that Melville Davisson Post graduated from our College of Law in 1891. While I had heard of Ambassador Joseph S. Farland, a member of the Class of 1938, I did not realize until a telephone conversation with him last spring that he had served as the ambassador of a number of countries during his diplomatic years. Steve Ailes, Class of 1936, served as the Secretary of the Army during President Johnson's administration. And this list should go on and on.

In addition, as we were working on the self study materials this summer we noted that in recent years faculty members who began their academic careers on our faculty have gone on to become deans at other law schools. Gene Nichol, who was on our faculty from 1978-84, was previously the dean at the University of Colorado and is now the dean at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Laura Rothstein, who was on our faculty from 1980-84, is now the dean of the University Louisville, and Fred Schauer, who started teaching on our faculty in 1974, is now the academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.