Clark, Tom C.

Hastings, John S.

Rowe, Paul N.

English

bepress Legal Repository

Dean Leon H. Wallace

Indiana University Bloomington Maurer School of Law

Indiana Law JournalVolume 42 | Issue 1 Article 1Fall 1966Dean Leon H. WallaceTom C. ClarkUnited States Supreme CourtJohn S. HastingsUnited States Court of Appeals for the Seventh CircuitPaul N. RoweIndiana State Bar AssociationFollow this and additional works at: http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/iljPart of the Legal Biography Commons, and the Legal Education CommonsThis Tribute is brought to you for free and open access by the Law SchoolJournals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted forinclusion in Indiana Law Journal by an authorized editor of DigitalRepository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contactwattn@indiana.edu.Recommended CitationClark, Tom C.; Hastings, John S.; and Rowe, Paul N. (1966) "Dean Leon H. Wallace," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 42 : Iss. 1 , Article 1.Available at: http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol42/iss1/1INDIANA LAW JOURNALVolume 42 FALL 1966 Number IThe Indiana Law Journal is pleased to dedicate this issue to Leon H.Wallace, who retired as Dean of the Indiana University School of Law inJuly of 1966. Mr. Wallace, a distinguished lawyer, scholar, and dean, willremain. on the faculty as Charles McGuffey Hepburn Professor of Law.DEAN LEON H. WALLACEIt gives me great pleasure to join with the Indiana Law Journal inhonoring my old friend Dean Leon H. Wallace on his retirement afterfifteen years as Dean of the Law School at Indiana. It is most fittingthat the Journal dedicate this issue to Dean Wallace, whose legal workhas contributed so much to the development of the law during the lastquarter of a century. It is most pleasing to recall our long association to-gether as fraternity brothers (Delta Tau Delta and Order of the Coif)and as co-workers in the Seventh Federal Circuit Bar where I serve asCircuit Justice.In these years of observance of him and his work, both on and offthe campus, I have found that he has not let his learning-of which hehas an abundance-lead him astray from the practicalities of life. He isnot one to go about displaying his knowledge; he studies to learn, to di-gest and to master the law, not to use it as "show-off." Recognized as agreat teacher of the law, he knows that his courses do not add up to aneducation but merely are a means to attain it. He is well aware that whilethe law is a learned profession it is also an intensely practical one. It isthis basic philosophy that enables him to turn out so many students thathave done so much for the law profession. Their names are legion andthey will continue for years and years to display these basic qualities oftheir "old" teacher.Retirement does not mean that either the law school, the professionor the Bar will lose the helping hand of Dean Wallace. In the law hecontinues to be as young as his ideas, as beloved as his tradition. We wishhim a happy and satisfying retirement from administration during whichhe continues to devote his great abilities, deep wisdom and high spirit tothe continued development of the living law.Tom C. CLARKtt Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court.INDIANA LAW JOURNALOn the occasion of the retirement of Dean Leon Wallace as Dean ofthe Indiana University School of Law, I am happy to pay a personaltribute to this distinguished lawyer and legal scholar. I have always heldDean Wallace in the highest personal esteem. He has performed an out-standing service for our Indiana University School of Law. He has beena lawyer of the highest order and a teacher and scholar of unusual attain-ment. The consoling factor in the retirement of Dean Wallace is that hewill continue as a member of our faculty and will occupy the HepburnChair in the years to come. Indiana University, the Indiana Bar and theIndiana University School of Law have been immeasurably strengthenedby the service of Leon Wallace to our state and University since his ad-mission to the Bar in 1933.JOHN S. HASTINGStBy the bench marks which measure the accomplishments of deans oflaw schools, Leon H. Wallace has achieved uncommon success. DeanWallace, who has been a member of the Indiana University Law Schoolfaculty since 1945, was appointed in 1952 to fill the vacancy created bythe resignation of Bernard Gavit. Although members of the bar can onlyindistinctly observe the operations of law schools, the visible successesenjoyed by Dean Wallace have been genuinely remarkable.During the early years of his administration, the Law School va-cated old Maxwell Hall and moved to new and much more suitable quar-ters in the southwest corner of the campus. The new building was mosteffectively designed for the training of aspirants to the law, offeringthem modern, comfortable and attractive study, library, research andassembly facilities. Aside from the building's aesthetic contribution tothe legal education of its occupants, it provides accommodations matchedby few other law schools in this nation. Major credit for this newbuilding must be given to Dean Wallace.Under Dean Wallace's guidance the faculty of the Law School hascontinued to include and attract scholars of the highest note. Perhapsno law school dean can better discharge his responsibilities than by pre-serving and enhancing the excellence of his faculty, and in this endeavorDean Wallace has succeeded admirably. Especially significant has beenhis ability to draw to the Law School the younger members of the facultywhose enthusiasm and creativity inspire the mind and sharpen the witsof the student and enrich the educational process.t Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.LEON H. WALLACESoon after Dean Wallace assumed that title, a practical legal train-ing program was initiated at the Law School. It was an innovation inlegal education and provided an opportunity for students to apply in prac-tice the knowledge acquired in the classroom. In conjunction with thisprogram, which was integrated into the Law School's regular curriculum,extensive financial assistance was made available to qualified students,and this scholarship assistance has been continued through the LawSchool Fund, which was founded in 1963-64. He encouraged and nur-tured these many educational training and scholarship programs throughtheir inception, and the obvious successes which they enjoy are attribut-able in large measure to his efforts.But if any single factor must be identified as the true mark of DeanWallace's achievements, it must be the student body. In the Korean Waryears when Leon Wallace took office as Dean, the Law School-as otherprofessional schools-had a very depressed enrollment, with only sixtystudents in the 1951 freshman class, many of whom were unable becauseof military obligations to complete even one semester of school. Todaythe Law School enrolls some two hundred fifty students each year anddeclines to accept countless other applicants. That the Law School's en-rollment has achieved such high levels is but another indication of DeanWallace's capabilities as an administrator and educator.From his students I have learned that Dean Wallace was probablythe most accessible head of any school on any campus. And it matterednot to him whether the students who came to him brought problems fromthe classroom, the study hall, or their homes. Understanding and cour-teous, he was a father-confessor and patiently listened and benignly dis-pensed the wisdom of lawyer, teacher and friend. All the more remark-able was this when one recalls that Dean Wallace continued to teachcourses in future interests and local administrative law, and for a timetaught a course in trusts as well.The Law Journal also profited greatly from Dean Wallace's support.Again, from his students, Journal editors, I learn that in times when theindependence of the Journal was less secure, he invariably and unequi-vocally backed its student-formulated editorial policies, and that, whilehe never attempted to impose his will on student editors, Dean Wallacenever refused to give full hearing to any of their requests, that not oncedid he fail to support in every proper way their efforts to produce a Jour-nal worthy of Indiana University. One may doubt whether, in the ab-sence of his encouragement and forthright assistance, the Journal wouldtoday enjoy its high academic recognition.INDIANA LAW JOURNALIt should be remembered that Dean Wallace was for twelve years apracticing lawyer at Terre Haute, coming there from having earned hisJ.D. at Indiana University on the highest scholastic record made up tothat time. To the Terre Haute Bar he brought an excellence in legalscholarship, pleading and documentary draftsmanship, and general legalfinesse and expertise that amazed and inspired his fellow practitioners.His competence was such that his alma mater soon brought him back tolaunch him on his life career of legal mentor.All the while, for thirty-three years, Dean Wallace has been a loyaland devoted worker in the organized bar. In the American Bar Associa-tion, he confined his work to the Section of Local Government Law, be-coming Section Chairman in 1964. In the Indiana State Bar Association,his participation is a record almost too long to narrate. Among his manycommittee memberships over the years he has done remarkable work asChairman of the Committee on Legal Education and Admissions to theBar and as Chairman of the Committee on Amendments to the State andFederal Constitutions. His extensive surveys and reports on admissionand placement practices were most revealing and greatly aided both thelaw graduate and the practitioner who would hire him. His exhaustiveand scholarly reports on pending state and federal constitutional amend-ments, year after year and duly correlated, are virtually a treatise on thesubject.With all of that, he has long served as a Director and Secretary-Treasurer of the Indiana Bar Foundation and has been the work horse ofthat organization. He joined in the creation of the Indiana ContinuingLegal Education Forum, has been on its Board, and has shepherded itssmall beginning to its present status as an effective and appreciated fa-cility for upgrading and updating the professional competence of thelawyer in practice. As Dean he has been a member of the House of Dele-gates and has faithfully attended its meetings and participated in its de-liberations. In summary, the organized bar has had no more active andloyal worker in its vineyard than Leon Wallace.Gentle and soft-spoken, Leon Wallace has implanted in his gradu-ates and many other young lawyers, and, thus, in the bar of the State ofIndiana, a sense of dignity and integrity and intellectual and professionalresponsibility. His retirement as Dean of the Law School is a loss madetolerable only by the knowledge that he will continue his career at theLaw School as Charles McGuf fey Hepburn Professor of Law. The barof the State of Indiana is grateful for his many contributions and countshim among its most distinguished members. As we have benefited andLEON H. WALLACE 5prospered through him, we say: "Long may he continue to live, to study,to teach, to counsel and to enrich our profession."PAUL N. ROWEtt President, Indiana State Bar Association.

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Dean Leon H. Wallace

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