Bromberg, Alan R.

English

Southern Methodist University

SMU Law ReviewVolume 32 | Issue 5 Article 31978Charles O. Galvin - A Personal ReminiscenceAlan R. BrombergFollow this and additional works at: https://scholar.smu.edu/smulrThis Tribute is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at SMU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in SMU Law Review byan authorized administrator of SMU Scholar. For more information, please visit http://digitalrepository.smu.edu.Recommended CitationAlan R. Bromberg, Charles O. Galvin - A Personal Reminiscence, 32 Sw L.J. 1055 (1978)https://scholar.smu.edu/smulr/vol32/iss5/3CHARLES 0. GALVIN-A PERSONAL REMINISCENCEbyAlan R. Bromberg*C HARLEY Galvin was already something of a legend among taxpeople when I returned to Dallas in 1954 with aspirations to become atax person. He had been in practice since 1947 with one of the city's fewfirms then having a significant number of tax specialists. Drawing on hisCPA qualifications, and his M.B.A. and J.D. degrees, he was well estab-lished as a tax man, bright and knowledgeable, clever and creative. Hehad published two substantial articles in major law journals. He hadtaught accounting at SMU before and after he was in law school, and atNorthwestern while he was a law student. Then, in a move that surprisedsome of the local tax people, and impressed all of them, he became a full-time member of the SMU law faculty in 1952. But he remained an activelawyer and advisor for part of his time, not withdrawing from the businessand professional world but continuing to play a significant role in it.When I met him in 1954, I had no inkling that my career would follow asimilar pattern (except that I left downtown for Law School withoutachieving anything like his eminence), and would be significantly cata-lyzed by his.I had learned a lot of tax law from Yale's master, Boris Bittker (who isalso contributing to this issue). But my tax was rusty from two years in thearmy. Worse, my knowledge was largely obsolete because of the passageof the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 just as I was mustered out. All thelater reforms and revisions, even those of 1969, 1976, and 1978, seem slightcompared to the changes made in 1954. The whole structure and languageof the tax law, and many of its basic concepts, were startlingly new. Icould perhaps have read the Code and Committee Reports from end toend, but that had no more appeal then than now. So I chose more palat-able means: a series of weekly noncredit lectures on the entire Code and agraduate seminar on Taxation of Business Entities, both at SMU. Theformer was half Galvin, the latter all Galvin. Here was another masterteacher. The lectures were organized, clear, comprehensive, and practical;detail was always in statutory and historical perspective. The seminar hadmany of the same qualities as his lectures, but probed the area of partner-ship and corporate taxation much more deeply, faced the intractableproblems of tax policy and used the Socratic method to ask the unanswer-able questions.* A.B., Harvard University; J.D., Yale University. Professor of Law, Southern Meth-odist University.1055SOUTHWESTERN LAW JO URNALOut of the relationship we developed in that seminar came the sugges-tion that I try my hand at teaching. I think the idea was Charley's, al-though I no longer remember clearly. Since I didn't work every night atthe law firm, I agreed to give an evening course. The school's need in thesummer of 1955 was for Equity, a course I had not taken in law school andknew virtually nothing about. In the fall of 1955 it was Agency, a coursein the same category. But I had enough fun and challenge stumblingthrough those courses that I was very receptive when Charley and RoyRay made a more substantial proposition: I should become a full timefaculty member during the 1956-57 academic year when Charley would beat Harvard working on his S.J.D. degree. This time I would teach some ofhis courses, and some that I knew something about: tax, corporations, andsecurities. I accepted and arranged a year's leave from my law firm.Before the year was over, I was hooked on teaching and decided to staywith it.When he returned from Harvard in 1957, Charley proved to be an idealcolleague. As I taught many of "his" courses, like Oil and Gas Taxation,and Taxation and Fiscal Policy, he was always ready to share his assign-ments, problems, notes, and insights.Charley's concern for the whole University, and the Law School's rela-tionship to it, was manifested vigorously in his work on university commit-tees, including the one that produced the 1963 Master Plan. This wasanother example I was to follow in my involvement with the UniversityCollege, the university self-study and other university-wide activitiesthroughout most of the 1960's.The only time Charley and I taught together was in the fall of 1963when, on very short notice, Dean J.W. Riehm resigned. Among othergaps, that left no one to teach a scheduled seminar in Taxation of BusinessEntities. Although we both had full loads, Charley and I added thatcourse. I took primary responsibility for the partnership part and he forthe corporation part, and we were both involved throughout, much to mydelight and edification.Charley soon filled another gap left by that resignation: he became thedean. Others will write about him in that capacity. I will add only a per-sonal note or two. There were no search committees in those days, nofaculty votes on deans, and little communication between the central ad-ministration and the faculty on the selection of deans. But Charley wasvery much the faculty's choice for the job. He was certainly mine.As dean and professor, Charley and I sometimes clashed, as strong-minded people do. The most notable instance was the 1965 decision toclose the evening division of the Law School. Despite these differences, Ifound most of his policies thoughtful and reasonable, democratic, anddedicated to the school. And he made every effort to encourage and ac-commodate my development as a teacher and scholar.For all that he has done for me and for the school, in so many differentways, I am deeply grateful.1056 [VOl..3/

Charles O. Galvin - A Personal Reminiscence

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Charles O. Galvin - A Personal Reminiscence

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