Since 1954 when Justice Black joined the opinion of the Court in Brown v. Board of Education, he had been ostracized in Alabama. But that feeling was melting away. In the summer of 1968 he was invited to speak at the annual meeting of the Alabama State Bar in Tuscaloosa, and he accepted. This was a historic and somewhat emotion-filled moment, as he had not been back in his native state for well over twenty years. The Law School Alumni Association took advantage of the occasion by holding a luncheon in his honor at the University.[10]
The next significant development in our seeking enhanced financial resources came in 1968 when George Burns joined the University Development Office. In line with Dr. Rose’s commitment to the law school, Burns was assigned to help with our fund-raising work. He came from California where he had been involved in successful fund-raising activities for several colleges. He presented the foundation board with an idea which he said had worked effectively in California. The idea was to establish a selective organization of prominent lawyers and outstanding citizens from other fields, each of whom would pledge to contribute at least $100 annually to the Law School Foundation. This was an especially appealing proposal in that it would draw non-lawyer support, in keeping with our theory that the importance of the law school went beyond the legal profession and was a vitally important institution to the welfare of the state and for the preservation of government under law.
The board agreed with the idea and in the spring of 1969 established the Farrah Law Society. The name honored Albert J. Farrah, dean of the law school from 1913 to 1944, who was much beloved by students who had studied under him. This was at the time, as will be described later, when the Order of the Coif replaced the Farrah Order of Jurisprudence as the school’s honor society. So the new society kept the name Farrah alive and satisfied the older alumni. The foundation board chose Howell Heflin as the society’s chairman.
Selective membership was to be by invitation, creating what some might have called an “elite” organization, thus making membership more attractive and creating an incentive to join. Recruitment of members was to be by means of private dinners all over the state, hosted mainly by foundation directors but also by other alumni enlisted for the organizing effort. Twenty-seven dinners were hosted in all parts of the state. I attended all but three. Heflin attended more than twenty.
The project succeeded beyond all expectations. The original goal was 350 members by the fall. That goal was soon passed, and a new goal of 400 was set. That goal too was passed, and membership continued to grow. By the time of the inaugural dinner in Birmingham on October 24, 1969, membership totaled 576. That black-tie dinner was the high-water mark of our fund-raising efforts over the past three years. The principal speaker was Dean Bayless Manning of the Stanford Law School.
Over the next few weeks membership reached 612. Each member was presented with a handsome laminated wooden plaque, numbered, inscribed with his name, and signed by the chairman of the society, president of the foundation, and dean of the law school. With every member pledged to contribute at least $100 annually, this meant a yearly income for the foundation of at least $61,200, in addition to other contributions. To me, this development was a resounding vote of alumni confidence for what had been done in the law school in the past three years and for the direction it was taking. In 1968, after expenses, total foundation assets were $335,429, a figure unimaginable a couple of years earlier.
From a twenty-first century vantage point, the sums mentioned here may seem small. But in the late 1960s they were significant. The law school’s annual tuition for in-state students was only $450. Experienced law professors throughout the country were paid less—often much less—than $20,000 annually. Although the foundation’s efforts over these four years were a huge boost to the school, it was disappointing that no major gift was received, no blockbuster gift of at least several hundred thousand dollars, no gift at the level the Atlanta lawyers had talked to me about.
Georgia was on my mind as we progressed with our fund-raising efforts. I wondered how we compared with that law school. This was a matter of special interest since, as earlier reported, I had been briefed on their grandiose aspirations in January 1964. I found out on November 18, 1967, when I participated in an elaborate dedicatory ceremony to mark the opening of their renovated and enlarged law school building. The principal speaker was Justice Black. The impact of the Atlanta money was obvious. In addition to an excellent building, they had established endowed professorships and lectureships and had expanded the library collection. Of course, they had a three-year head start on us. They also had a governor giving them strong, affirmative support, something we did not have. That scene in Athens strengthened my determination to equal and exceed what I saw. If they had done it, why couldn’t we?
As a further step toward unifying the alumni and heightening their sense of institutional attachment, we undertook, with foundation financial support, the first-ever publication of an alumni directory. This turned out to be a more substantial project than had been envisioned. In some instances, records were surprisingly incomplete. Much research was required into University archives and law school files, but eventually every graduate was identified. The effort resulted in the publication in 1970 of the University of Alabama Law School Directory of Graduates, 1872–1970. As the title indicates, persons who attended but did not graduate were not included. The directory covered the entire history of the school, from its opening through the class of 1970. It included a list of all faculty members from the beginning, and all graduates, both living and dead, listed alphabetically and by class, with a geographical listing of the living. It is an important reference work on law school history, providing information not readily available elsewhere and certainly not available in any other single publication.[11]
To summarize, nearly everything that had to be done to lift the law school to a higher level depended on securing substantial private funds. Nothing was of higher priority. I estimate that over the four years of my deanship at least half of my time was spent on fund-raising—traveling to attend alumni gatherings and to meet with prospects, writing letters, on the telephone with foundation board members and others. Fund-raising was rarely out of my mind. It was an almost messianic obsession. But I thought it essential to overcome long years of inattention and to catch up with the best of the law school world. Though often stressful and tiring, it was interesting and enjoyable because of the associations it involved with foundation board members and other alumni. They were the strongest source of support. Their enthusiasm for the law school and the time they invested in fund-raising, though they were busy practitioners, was impressive. I was and always have been deeply grateful to them. Without them, much of what was accomplished during those four years would not have been accomplished.
This is a good point to mention the role of my wife, Jan. Throughout the four years of my deanship she was heavily involved in law school activities. The foundation board met regularly in Tuscaloosa, and she nearly always held a reception for the directors at our house. She was particularly good at alumni relationships. We had faculty members to dinner from time-to-time, and Jan assisted in entertaining visiting lecturers and professors. She participated in the Law Wives activities and enjoyed that association. For occasions generally, she served as unofficial law school hostess. She was a great asset to the school and to me; she could hardly have done more.
3
The heart of any law school is its faculty. On them depend the nature of the curriculum, the quality of instruction, the general tone of the place, and the school’s reputation. In the academic year 1965–66 there were thirteen full-time faculty at the University of Alabama Law School.[12] Most had been on the faculty for over ten years, several for more than twenty.