Graduates of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law achieve greatness. Whether practicing law in a small family firm, an international firm with offices around the globe, a start-up tech company, or any number of other settings in and outside the field of law, our graduates make a difference. The graduates listed here are examples of people who have gone the extra mile, not just excelling in their workplace or community, but by leaving their mark on the larger national and international environment.
Arrangement is by year of birth. To search for a specific notable alumni, use the search box in the upper left-hand corner of this screen.
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Leroy William Hofmann
Leroy William Hofmann was born (2/22/1929) and raised in Indianapolis Indiana. Upon graduating from Thomas Carr Howe High School in 1946, he enrolled at Indiana University. Hofmann graduated from IU with a B.A. in Sociology in 1950. A few months later he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving until 1954. He spent the next year as a Personnel Research Assistant with the L.S. Ayres and Company in Indianapolis, before enrolling at the Indiana University School of Law in the fall of 1955. Hofmann served on the Student Editorial Staff of the Indiana Law Journal (v.32-33) during his law school career, was elected to Order of the Coif, and was awarded 1957’s Charles A. Halleck Award, based on scholarship, character, and need. Hofmann received his JD from the law school in 1948.
After graduation, Hofmann headed west to Arizona, where he clerked for Justice Fred C. Struckmeyer Jr., of the Arizona Supreme Court. Hofmann remained in Arizona after the clerkship, serving as an associate in the Phoenix firm of Kenneth S. Scoville. Hofmann gained experience in all aspects of tort trial practice, but eventually specialized in personal injury cases. In 1973, he co-founded the firm Hofmann, Salcito & Stevens and later worked at Jennings, Haug, and Cunningham. An authority on liability insurance and medical malpractice, he served on commissions that provided guidance to Arizona lawmakers and on committees governing ethics and discipline of Arizona attorneys.
Leroy William Hofmann was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1992 and received the school’s Distinguished Service Award in 2010. Hofmann died in 2018 at the age of 89.
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Thomas Milton Lofton
Thomas Milton Lofton was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 12, 1929. After graduating from Howe High School in Indianapolis in 1947, he enrolled at Butler University. He transferred to Indiana University for his senior year where he received a B.S. in Business, with distinction, in 1951. He then enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law, receiving his JD, again with distinction, in 1954. While in law school he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Indiana Law Journal (v.28)
After law school, Lofton clerked for United States Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton (1954-55). He then served three years as a First Lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General Corps in the United States Army. In 1958, he returned to his home town and joined the firm of Baker and Daneils. He spent more than 30 years with the firm, becoming a partner in 1962, and retiring as managing partner in 1991. Initially, Lofton specialized in corporate and antitrust law, but in the 1970s he expanded into the areas of taxation and administration, especially related to charitable organizations.
Upon retirement, he excepted a position as Vice Chairman of the Lilly Endowment. He became Chairman in 1994. The Lilly Endowment is one of the 10 largest private foundations in the United States; its priorities include religion, education, and community development with emphasis on projects that benefit young people and promote leadership and education. Through its grantmaking, the Lilly Endowment has helped Indiana's private and public colleges focus on student recruitment and retention. As Chairman, Lofton led a decade-long effort that resulted in the creation of community foundations in every county in Indiana. He also helped create a national role for the Lilly Endowment, most recently evidenced by grants to the United Negro College Fund and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund for the purpose of increasing minority participation in higher education.
Lofton was an active member of the Board of Visitors for the law school (1978-1987; 1994-2005). He was president of the Law Alumni Association in 1976. Among the many honors he received from Indiana University were his induction into the Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1991, his 1992 presentation of the Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion, and the 1997 Indiana University Dinguished Alumni Service Award. He also has served the university as a member of the Campaign for Indiana steering committee; as chair of the fundraising campaign for the Wells Scholars Program; and as a member of the IU Foundation Board of Directors (1978-1991), the IU Alumni Association, and the IU School of Medicine Dean's Council.
Thomas Milton Lofton died on June 19, 2015, at the age of 86.
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Birch Evans Bayh, Jr.
Birch Evans Bayh, Jr. was born January 22, 1928, in Terre Haute, Indiana. He attended Fayette Township High School where he excelled in public speaking and leadership. Raised partly on his grandparent’s farm, Bayh developed a passion for farming and won numerous agricultural competitions, including the 1944 Indiana 4-H Tomato Championship. After High School Bayh served three years in the U.S. Army, before attending Purdue University, where he received his B.A. in Agriculture in 1951. In 1952 he married Marvell Hern and began taking courses at Indiana State University, all the while running the family farm.
In 1954 he was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives, where he served two years as Speaker and four years as Democratic Floor Leader. At the time, Bayh was the youngest Speaker in Indiana state history. At the same time he was a legislator, Bayh studied law at the Indiana University School of Law and received his JD in 1960. At age 34, Bayh was elected to the United States Senate in the 1962 midterm elections, defeating 18-year incumbent Homer E. Capehart.
Over the next 18 years Bayh would rise to become one of the most known and influential politicians the state of Indiana has ever produced. Among his accomplishments are:
- Author of two constitutional amendments: the Twenty-fifth Amendment on Presidential and Vice Presidential succession, and the Twenty-sixth Amendment that lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 years of age.
- Author of the landmark legislation Title IX to the Higher Education Act that mandates equal opportunities for women students & faculty.
- Author and co-sponsor of the Bayh-Dole Act that enables universities and small businesses to gain ownership of federally-funded copyrights.
- Architect, the Juvenile Justice Act.
- Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Bayh ran unsuccessfully for the 1976 Democratic Presidential nomination. He was defeated in his fourth Senate reelection attempt by Indiana's 4th congressional district congress member Dan Quale in 1980. Bayh’s eldest son, Evan has had a successful political life as well, serving as Indiana Secretary of State, U.S. Senator (two terms), and Governor of Indiana (two terms).
Birch Bayh spent his retirment living in Easton, Maryland, with his second wife Kitty. He was a fellow at the C.V. Starr Center of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. Bayh was inducted into the Law School’s Academy of Law Alumni Fellows and presented with an honorary LLD in 1995. He received the Indiana University Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 2009.
Birch Evans Bayh, Jr., died on March 14, 2019, at the age of 91.
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Robert Burton Benson
Robert Burton Benson was born (11/25/1928) and raised in Schenectady, New York. After graduating from Mont Pleasant High School in Schenectady, Benson served in the U.S. Navy (1946-1948). Upon his discharge, he enrolled at Purdue University. While officially a student at Purdue, Benson was enrolled in a combined curriculum with the Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington. Upon completing his Engineering Law studies at Purdue (1951), he began his law studies in Bloomington. As a result, he was awarded both a B.S. degree and a LL.B. degree in 1954.
Upon graduation, the Allis-Chalmers machine manufacturer company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin hired Benson. Benson’s long career with Allis-Chalmers saw him rise through multiple positions: Chief of Patent Law, Associate General Counsel, President of U.S. Fluid Carbon (subsidiary), and finally President and Chief Operating Officer of the Allis-Chalmers Co. Benson was a leader in organizing patent attorneys and molding public policing regarding intellectual property. He served as President (1969) of the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel and chaired (1978-79) the American Bar Association’s Patent, Trademark and Copyright Law section. During the late 1970s, Benson promoted reform of the U.S. patent system, and participated in a cabinet level domestic policy review committee for industrial innovation in the Carter administration. Benson also served as President (1984) of the American Intellectual Property Association and helped draft the International Patent Cooperation Treaty.
Robert B. Benson was inducted into the Indiana University Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1989. Benson died on July 17, 1998 at the age of 69.
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Russell Holiday Hart, Jr.
Russell Holiday Hart, Jr., was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 1, 1928. After graduating (1946) from Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Illinois, Hart enrolled at DePaul University in Greencastle, Indiana. He received his B.A. in economics from DePaul in 1950. After college, Hart spent a year in the General Electric Business Training program in Bridgeport, Connecticut, before entering the US Army (1951-1953). Once discharged from the Army, Hart enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law. While in law school, Hart served on the editorial board of the Indiana Law Journal (v.30-31), was elected Order of the Coif, and received his JD in 1956.
After law school, Hart joined the Lafayette, Indiana, firm Stuart, Devol, Branigin & Ricks. He remained with the firm for the next 40 years. He would ultimately rise to Senior Partner and would head the firm’s litigation practice. Over the years he developed an expertise representing railroad companies and in providing civil, environmental, and insurance litigation.
Service was always a priority for Russell Hart. He served as President of the Indiana State Bar Association, President of the Indiana Defense Lawyers Association, and President of the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel. He was a fellow of the Indiana Bar Foundation, the American Bar Foundation, and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, to name just a few organizations. Hart was honored by the Governor of Indiana as a Sagamore of the Wabash for his professional and community service activities and was honored by the Indiana Bar Foundation with its 2007 Legendary Lawyer Award. Russell Holiday Hart was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1997.
Russell Hart died in 2022.
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Viola J. Taliaferro
Evington, Virginia, native (b.1928) Viola J. Taliaferro didn’t have the time to enter law school until she was 44 years old. Taliaferro graduated from high school at age 14. She then received her B. S. from Virginia State University at age 19. That same year (1947) she began working as a Supervisor of Admissions at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In 1949, she moved to Washington, D.C. and began working at the Howard University Medical School. She married in 1950 and spent several years living in Dallas, Los Angeles, and finally Baltimore, where she took a job with the Department of Welfare. She attended Morgan State University where she received her teaching certificate and soon became a teacher, and later an administrator, with the Baltimore Public Schools (1965-1972). While teaching, she received a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University (1969). In 1972. she and her husband and their four children moved to Bloomington.
In the fall of 1975, she enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law and received her J.D. in 1977. She then went into private practice, focusing family and criminal law. In 1989, Taliaferro was named Monroe Circuit Court Magistrate, In 1995 she was appointed Judge of Monroe Circuit Court VII. Viola Taliaferro retired in 2004.
Judge Taliaferro’s name is synonymous with her jurisprudence involving children’s rights. She is recognized as a leading contributor to the law dealing with children. Taliaferro has served on numerous boards and has been the recipient of copious awards, including: Indiana State Bar Association’s Women in the Law Award (1993), Bloomington Commission on the Status of Women’s Woman of the Year Award (2000). Taliaferro is also the namesake to the State Bar’s Viola J. Taliaferro Award (an award named in her honor which is presented to an individual or group for their extraordinary efforts on behalf of children.)
Viola J. Taliaferro was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law's Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 2000. The University presented her with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007 and the Law School named its Family and Children Mediation Clinic after her in 2008.
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Willard Zeller Carr, Jr.
Willard Zeller Carr, Jr., was born in Richmond, Indiana, on December 18, 1927. Upon graduating from Richmond High School in 1945, he enrolled at Purdue University. After three years at Purdue, Carr enrolled in a cooperative arrangement between Purdue and the Indiana University School of Law, in which his first year of law school would serve as his senior year as an undergraduate. In this manner, he received his Bachelor of Science from Purdue in 1949 and his law degree from I.U. in 1950.
Soon after graduating from law school, Carr entered the U.S. Air Force, serving as a captain in the Judge Advocate General’s Department. In 1952, Carr accepted a position with the Los Angeles firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He would remain with the firm for the next 42 years, specializing in employment law and labor relations.
Carr was an internationally recognized expert on employment law and labor relations, an author of numerous publications on the subject, and served as an arbitrator and mediator. He chaired committees for the American Bar Association, the International Bar Association and the United States Executive Committee of the U.S.- European Top Management Roundtable. Carr was a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow Emeritus of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. His civic and philanthropic contributions to the Southern California community were numerous.
Carr had a long and close relationship with the law school at Indiana. He served on the school's Board of Visitors from 1996 until 2003, and funded an endowed professorship in labor and employment law beginning in 1992. Willard Z. Carr, Jr. was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1991.
William Z. Carr died on April 10, 2020 in Thousand Oaks, California. He was 92.
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Ellis Bernard Anderson
Ellis Bernard Anderson was born in Michigan City, Indiana, on August 30, 1926. Anderson attended Isaac C. Elston Senior High School in Michigan City, before attended Indiana State Teachers College (Indiana State University). From 1944-46 he was in the military serving in the Pacific. Anderson returned to Indiana after his military service and enrolled at Indiana University, receiving his B.A. degree in 1949. He then enrolled at the I.U. School of Law, where he received his J. D. degree in 1952. While in law school Anderson was a member of the editorial board of the Indiana Law Journal (v.27, 1951/52) and was a member of the first moot court team to compete in national competitions.
After graduation, Anderson joined the Evansville law firm that would become Butt Bower & Anderson. Anderson also served as the City of Evansville Corporation Council and the City Controller. Anderson served as Campaign Manager for Vance Hartke's first U. S. Senate race in 1958, and became a staff member of the Senate's Special Committee on Chronic Unemployment Problems (1959-1960)
In 1961, Anderson accepted a position as General Counsel for Baxter Laboratories in the Chicago area. In 1965, he became the General Counsel for the pharmaceutical firm of Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc., in New Jersey. He remained with the company for the rest of his career, rising to Senior Vice-president for Law, Taxes, Human Resources, Corporate Licensing and Development, and Risk Management. Anderson served on the company’s board of directors and was Chair of its fiduciary review committee. He retired in 1989.
Ellis Bernard Anderson was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1990. Anderson died in November of 2020, at the age of 94.
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Elwood Haynes Hillis
Elwood “Bud” Hillis was born on March 6, 1926 in Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana. His father was Glen Hillis, an attorney and the 1940 Republican candidate for Governor of Indiana. His mother Bernice Haynes Hillis was the daughter of the noted automobile pioneer and inventor Elwood Haynes. Bud Hillis attended Kokomo Public Schools and graduated from Culver Military Academy in 1944. Upon graduation, he entered the U.S. Army and served in the European Theater during World War II. He rose to the rank of first lieutenant, and was discharged in 1946. He returned to Indiana and enrolled at Indiana University, Bloomington, receiving his B.S. in 1949 and his J.D. in 1952. He was admitted to the Bar and began his law practice in Kokomo.
In 1966, Hillis entered politics, being elected to the Indiana House of Representatives. He served two terms in the Indiana General Assembly, and then in 1970 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. Hillis represented the 5th Congressional District for 16 years in Washington, serving from 1971 to 1987. During his time in Washington, he was noted for support of the development of the M1 “Abrams” Tank, and he was the co-founder of the Congressional Auto Task Force. He served for many years on the Veterans Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee. He was the first Republican ever endorsed by the Indiana AFL-CIO. In 1986, Hillis decided to retire from Congress, and was not a candidate for reelection. He then returned to Kokomo to resume his law practice.
Bud Hillis was recognized and honored by Indiana University, Kokomo in 2005 at its Scholarship Gala. After he left Congress, he served on the IU Kokomo Advisory Board and in the 1990’s he was the outreach chair of the IU Kokomo Library Campaign that raised $2 million of the $12 million project cost. His additional honors from Indiana University include the IU Alumni Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1982; induction into the Law School’s Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1996; the IU Kokomo Chancellor’s Award for Commitment to Higher Education in 1993 (presented to both Bud and Carol Hillis); and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree through IU Kokomo in 1998. Additionally, Hillis served on the law school Board of Visitors from 1975 until 1978. He and his wife Carol currently reside in Windsor, Colorado.
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John Farrell Kimberling
John “Jack” Farrell Kimberling was born in Shelbyville, Indiana, on November 15, 1926. After graduating from Rushville High School in 1944, Kimberling served two years in the U.S. Navy. While in the Navy, he participated in the V-12 College Training Program, taking classes at DePaul, Indiana, and Purdue Universities. As a result, he received a bachelor’s degree from Purdue in naval science and tactics (1946) and an A. B. degree from Indiana in government (1947). He then enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law and received his JD in 1950.
Kimberling briefly practiced law in Muncie, Indiana, before he was recalled to active duty in the Navy during the Korean War. Released from active duty as a Lt. Commander in 1953, he decided to stay on the West Coast. He joined the Los Angeles firm of Lillick, McHose and Charles. He became a partner in the firm in 1963, and ultimately rose to managing partner. He retired from the firm in 1986, only to be recruited as a senior partner in the Los Angeles offices of the Dewy Ballantine, where he chaired the litigation department until his retirement in 1990.
Once called “one of the top trial lawyers in the country” by The American Lawyer, Kimberling was widely known as a leading litigation specialist. He was a charter member of the American Bar Association Section on Litigation, and was a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Kimberling's ties to Indiana University were deep. He was a member of the IU Foundation Board of Directors and the law school’s Board of Visitors (1994-98). In 1990 he was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows and served as a visiting professor at the law school in 1993. Kimberling endowed the John F. Kimberling Chair and scholarship at the law school in 1992. The school’s planned giving society was renamed in Kimberling’s honor in 2009. Kimberling received the IU Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 2001 and the IU Foundation’s President’s Medallion in 2006.
John Farrell Kimberling died in Palm Springs, California, a the age of 86 in 2013.
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John Weber Donaldson
John Weber Donaldson was born (10/13/1926) and raised in Lebanon, Indiana. Donaldson graduated from that city’s Lebanon High School in 1944, where he won multiple academic honors and played on the 1943 Indiana state basketball runnerup team. Upon his high school graduation, he enlisted in the United States Navy. As part of his naval service, he attended DePauw University (1944-45) and the U.S. Naval Academy (1945-47). Upon his honorable discharge in 1949, he spent a summer at the University of Wisconsin and then returned to DePauw. He received his A.B. degree in mathematics and economics from DePauw in 1951. He then enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law, where he received his JD degree in 1954.
After law school, Donaldson returned to Lebanon and opened a practice with Frank E. Hutchinson. In 1956, he was elected to the Indiana General Assembly. Ultimately, Donaldson would serve 17 terms in the legislature, representing the citizens of Boone, Clinton, Hamilton, Hendricks, and Montgomery counties. Among the legislation he was most proud to have worked for were No Fault Divorce and the state’s first No Smoking Bill. Donaldson also served on the Supreme Court Committee on Character and Fitness. At the time of his retirement in 1992, Donaldson had served in more sessions of the assembly than anyone in the history of the state of Indiana, and was the only state representative to serve in five decades in the General Assembly. Donaldson also served as the city attorney of Lebanon from 1967-69, as attorney for the Boone County Planning Commission, and chair of the state Criminal Law Study Commission.
Donaldson also served on the law school’s Board of Visitors (1982-1988). John W. Donaldson died on April 26, 2015 at the age of 88.
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Lindy Glenn Moss
Lindy Glenn Moss was a true Hoosier, who made the decision to attend the Indiana University School of Law when he was 8-years old. Born in Hobart, Indiana, on July 21, 1926, he was a graduate of Hobart High School (1946). After high school, he spent a year in the United States Army Air Corps, before returning to Indiana University where he received the first of his three IU degrees. After receiving his B.A. in business (1949), he received an A.B. in government (1950), and then, at last, enrolled at the IU law school. He received his LL.B. from the law school in 1952.
After law school, Lindy became a FBI Special Agent working on the East Coast. In 1956, Lindy returned to Indiana and began his legal career, serving as Deputy Prosecutor and as a Public Defender for Allen County. His legal career would span almost 50 years, primarily in private practice specializing in business law, tax, and estate planning and administration. Moss was an active supporter of Allen County civic and non-profit organizations, serving on the board of the Parkview Memorial Hospital for almost 30 years. Additionally, he served as president of the Allen County Bar Association.
Moss served as president of the law school’s Alumni Association from 1967 to 1969, and was a recipient of the law school’s 1997 Distinguished Service Award. Additionally, the Northeast Chapter of the IU Alumni Association awarded him its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2001. In 2008, he received the IU Alumni Association’s President’s Award. Moss was a longtime supporter the Indiana University Memorial Union and served as president of the Union Board’s John Whittenberger Society in 2003.
Lindy Glenn Moss died, at the age of 89, in 2015.
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Patricia Ann (Gates) McNagny
Patricia Ann (Gates) McNagny was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on June 29, 1926. She was raised in the small town of Columbia City, Indiana, just west of Fort Wayne, in Whitely County. At the time of her birth, her father Ralph Gates was a local lawyer and banker, as well as a rising star in the local republican party. Ralph Gates would go on to serve as Governor of the state of Indiana between 1945 and 1949. Patricia attended Indiana University, where she received her A.B. degree with honors in 1948. Following the advice of her father, she then enrolled in the law school and received her J.D. degree in 1951. She was one of just three women in her law school class. While in law school, she married Philip M. McNagny (J.D. ’50).
Upon graduation, Patricia primarily worked from her Columbia City home drawing up wills and assisting local residents in real estate matters. At the same time, she was raising four daughters (three of which are graduates of Maurer.) In 1969, she began working with her husband at the family firm of Gates Gates & McNagny in Columbia City. Philip McNagny would go on to serve as a Federal District judge for the Northern District of Indiana, but would die in 1981. A year after his death, Patricia successfully ran for judge of the Whitely County Court. She was the first female judge in Whitely county history. She retired from the bench in 1991, but continued practicing law with her daughter Marcia.
Patricia McNagny served as Secretary of the Indiana State Bar Association, was named a fellow in the Indiana Bar Foundation, was vice-chair of the Whitley County Republican Committee, and was awarded the Nature Conservancy Oak Leaf Award for her efforts in establishing the Crooked Lake Nature Preserve. Patricia Ann McNagny was inducted into the Indiana University Maurer School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 2014. Patricia Ann McNagny died 2015.
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Bernard Eugene Harrold
Bernard Eugene Harrold was born in the tiny northern Indiana town of Poneto on February 5, 1925. Harrold attended grade 1-12 in the small Chester Center School in Poneto, graduating in 1943. He was then drafted into the US Army, serving during WWII in Europe. Harrold’s unit, known as the “Rail-splitters,” was part of the last allied push across Germany, meeting the Russians at the Elbe River. At the war’s completion, Harrold returned to Indiana and enrolled at Indiana University where he earned his B.A. in 1948. Having always wanted to be a lawyer, he then enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law. While in law school, he served as a Note Editor of the Indiana Law Journal (v.26), before receiving his LL.B. degree in 1951, Order of the Coif.
Harrold’s legal career began in practice as an associate, and later partner, with the Chicago firm Kirkland, Fleming, Green, Martin, and Ellis. Initially Harrold specialized in antitrust law, but he soon discovered he had the desire and talent to be a trial lawyer. In 1967 he joined five other likeminded attorneys and established a new firm – “a place where we could enjoy the practice of law.” Twenty years later the firm of Wildman, Harrold, Allen and Dixon would employ 160 attorneys with branches across the country and in London. Harrold practiced in the areas of antitrust, environmental law, trade secrets, and insurer-reinsurer relations.
Harrold served on local, state, and American Bar Association committees and was a member of the International Bar Association, the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the Society of Trial Lawyers. Over the years, he mentored dozens of young lawyers, many of them graduates of the IU Law School. Bernard Eugene Harrold was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1988. Harrold died at his home in Winnetka, Illinois, at the age of 87 in 2012.
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Charles LeRoy Whistler
Charles LeRoy Whistler was born in Green Hill, Warren County, Indiana, on November 26, 1925. He grew up in Boswell, Benton County, Indiana, where he graduated from Boswell High School (1944.) After high school, Whistler spent two years in the Army Air Corps before matriculating at Indiana University. He majored in Government and received his A.B. degree, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1948. He then enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law. While in law school, he served as the Articles and Book Review Editor of the Indiana Law Journal (v. 26) and held Order of Coif membership. He received his LL.B., with high distinctions, in 1951.
Upon graduation from law school, Whistler joined the law firm of Baker and Daniels in Indianapolis, concentrating on labor law issues. He soon, however, developed an interest in the law and administration of land planning and use. Recognizing that the city of Indianapolis lacked serious plans for future metropolitan development, he went to work with a like-minded group of lawyers drafting the legislation that would one day be known as the “Unigov Plan.” The plan consolidated the city government with that of Marion County, and has been credited as being a key factor in the growth of the city in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Whistler served the city in numerous professional and volunteer positions, including as President of the Metropolitan Development Commission of Greater Indianapolis (1968-1972) and as Co-Chairman of both the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee and the Regional Central Planning Committee. He additionally chaired the White River Park Citizens Advisory Committee and the Urban Growth and Revitalization Task Force. Whistler also served as a member of the House of Delegates of the Indiana Bar Association and the American Bar Association.
Chalres LeRoy Whistler died in 1981, at the age of 55. In 1982, the Baker and Daniels firm established the law school’s Charles L. Whistler Faculty Fellowship in his honor. In 1983, the City of Indianapolis created the Charles L. Whistler award, to recognize those who demonstrate visionary and enthusiastic leadership in serving the community, while providing outstanding service in bringing together the public and private sectors for civic improvement. Whistler was inducted, into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1989.
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Ewing Rabb Emison
Ewing Rabb Emison was a Hoosier, through and through. Emison was born in Vincennes on February 2, 1925, into a family with roots dating back to Knox County pioneers who arrived a dozen years before statehood. The Emison family law firm, established in 1819, is the 4th oldest continuous law firm in the United States and is today known as Kolb Roellgen & Kirchoff LLP. Rabb graduated from Vincennes’ Lincoln High School in 1942 and enrolled at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He joined the U.S. Navy and continued his education through the Navy College Training Program, taking classes at the University of South Carolina, Murray State Teacher’s College, and Northwestern University. He returned to Greencastle in 1946 and received his A.B. degree in December 1947.
After DePauw, Emison enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law, receiving his LL.B. degree in 1950. He then joined his father in practice, in Vincennes, and remained at the firm for the next fifty years. Over those years, he became known as a tenacious trial attorney and public servant. He worked with the Indiana Legislature on matters important to the public at large and to the law profession. In particular, he worked for several years on interstate compacts between Indiana and Illinois.
Emison served as President of the Indiana State Bar Association in 1986-87 and worked for years to establish the association’s Committee on Opportunities for Minorities. He also worked to establish the bar’s Committee on Minorities. The ISBA later created the Rabb Emison Award, granted to a lawyer who best served the goal of assistance to the minority lawyer. At the age of 78, in 2003, the American Bar Association presented Emison with its Inspirational Spirit of Excellence Award. Ewing Rabb Emison was inducted into the Indiana University Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1993. Emison died September 1, 2010, appropriately in his beloved hometown of Vincennes.
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Fred Hodge Gregory
Born on the 4th of July (1925) in Indianapolis, Indiana, Fred Hodge Gregory was raised in Bloomington. He attended that city’s Elm Heights Elementary School and was a graduate of University High School (1944). He then served in the U. S. Navy as part of the 23rd Naval Construction Battalion on Guam. After the war, he attended Princeton University graduating with a bachelor's degree in political science in 1950. He then returned to Bloomington and enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law, receiving his LL.B. degree in 1953.
On January 1, 1954, Gregory opened his first law practice in Bloomington. He would remain a local attorney for more than 50 years. He was elected Monroe County Prosecuting Attorney in 1959, serving in the position until 1962. He then joined law firm of Rogers & Rogers, before moving on to become the Trust Officer for the Monroe County Bank. In 1979, Gregory opened another solo practice in Bloomington, where he primarlily practiced Elder Law. Gregory was passionately involved in the Bloomington community. He served as a member of the John Ashton Committee, which initiated changes in the management of Bloomington Hospital and the construction of a new modern facility, as well as chair of a committee studying the need for a mental health facility in Monroe County. He later served as the first president and member of the Board of Directors of the South Central Indiana Mental Health Foundation.
Gregory also served as Judge Pro Tem and special judge in various Monroe County courts. He was recognized for his exemplary pro bono work in 2001 by District 10 of the State of Indiana. In 2007, he received the Randall T. Shepard Excellence in Pro Bono Publico Award and in 2008 received the Distinguished Service Award from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Fred H. Gregory died in Bloomington in 2009.
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Jeanne (Seidel) Miller
Jeanne (Seidel) Miller was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on October 4, 1925. In an eighth grade public speaking class she announced she wanted to be a lawyer – “an international lawyer and make a lot of money.” As it turned out, she never practiced international law and she certainly never became rich, but Jeanne Miller truly loved being a lawyer.
After graduating from South Side High School (1943), where she was an honor roll student each year, Miller attended Indiana University. Although she received her B.A. in 1946, she actually began taking law school classes as an undergraduate. As a law student she one of just three women in her class, was articles editor for the Indiana Law Journal, and was the first woman to be ranked number one in her class. She received her law degree in 1948, the same year she married Mickey M. Miller, a law school classmate.
After graduating, the Millers returned to Fort Wayne and started a family (their three children would all grow up to become lawyers.) Mickey began a firm in Fort Wayne, while Jeanne initially stayed home with the children. By the early 1950s, Jeanne decided to open a general civil practice in the nearby town of New Haven, Indiana. She would remain in practice, in New Haven, for the next 50 years. Along the way, Miller became a force for change in the legal profession in Indiana. She was the first woman to be elected President of the Indiana State Bar Association, she served as President of the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum, she served on the Disciplinary Commission of the Indiana Supreme Court, and she served four years as a member of the Indiana University Board of Trustees. In addition, she has been extremely active in Fort Wayne and Allen County community affairs, as well as service to Indiana University on both the Bloomington and Fort Wayne campuses.
Jeanne Seidel Miller was awarded the Ralph E. Broyles Medal for unique and significant contributions to the I.U. Fort Wayne campus in 1977 and the Indiana University Distinguished Alumni Service award in 1990. Additionally, Miller received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University in 1989, the same year she was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows.
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Robert Hurley McKinney
Robert Hurley McKinney’s name will forever be associated with legal education in Indiana. Since 1992, his name has appeared on a professorship at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law (The Robert H. McKinney Professor of Law) and in 2011 the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis was renamed the Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
Robert McKinney was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 7, 1925. He attended Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, graduating in 1943, before attending the U.S. Naval Academy, where he received his B.S. degree in engineering (1946). He served in the Navy until 1949, at which time he decided to attend law school. He enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law and received his JD in 1952.
McKinney’s legal career began when he went to work for Frank McHale, senior partner in the Indianapolis firm of McHale Cook and Welch. In 1961, McKinney became the Chairman of the First Federal Savings and Loan of Indianapolis and two years later helped start the firm Bose McKinney and Evans. In addition to his career as lawyer and banker, McKinney served in President Carter's administration in multiple positions related to federal home financing, culminating with a presidential appointment as Director of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae).
McKinney retired as a Partner with Bose, McKinney and Evans in 1991. He retired as Chairman and CEO of First Indiana Corporation, the parent company of First Indiana Bank, in 2005. He served on the Indiana University Board of Trustees from 1989-1998, and holds honorary degrees from Butler University, Marian University, and Indiana University. Robert H. McKinney was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1999.
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John Keith Mann
John Keith Mann was born on his family’s farm near in Alexis, Illinois, on May 28, 1924. A 1942 graduate of Alexis Community High School, Mann matriculated at Monmouth College (1942), just twenty miles south of Alexis. His college career continued in the U.S. Navy (1944-46) when he attended the U.S. Naval Training School in Boulder Colorado studying oriental languages. In 1946, Mann enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law, where his brother, William Howard Mann, was a professor (1946-1967). John Keith Mann received his B.S. in Law in 1948, and his LL.B. in 1949. While in law school he served on the student board of editors of the Indiana Law Journal (v.23 and 24) and was the Articles and Book Review Editor for v.24.
After law school, Mann clerked for Associate Supreme Court Justices Wiley Rutledge and Sherman Minton. He then entered private practice in Washington, D.C., before joining the U.S. Wage Stabilization Board. He taught law at the University of Wisconsin during the 1951/52 school year, before moving to the Stanford Law School in 1952. He spent the rest of his career at Stanford, retiring in 1988. In addition to being a professor, Mann was the school’s Associated Dean for Academic Affairs from 1961 to 1985 and its Acting Dean in 1976, 1981, and 1982.
Outside of academia, Mann served three U.S. Presidents (Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon) negotiating major labor disputes. In 1980, the Supreme Court appointed Mann as a Special Master to investigate a dispute between the State of Alaska and the federal government over control of offshore areas along the state’s northeast Arctic coast. His report has been credited with directly leading to the protection of the Alaskan barrier islands from oil drilling.
Mann was a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and served two terms on the law school’s Board of Visitors (1976-1982). J. Keith Mann was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1987. Mann died 2006 at the age of 82.