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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Wendell Lewis Willkie
Only the elders of this generation can personally recall the passion aroused by the presidential election of 1940, but the story of Wendell Lewis Willkie (1892-1944), electrifies us more than seventy-five years later. He was invisible in winter, only a faint star in spring, then, in the summer of 1940, he became a blazing comet, exploding in the Republican Convention and firing his party into a frenzied campaign that came close to victory over incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Willkie story continued after election defeat with this titular party leader accepting the wartime leadership of his victorious opponent, then striving to unify the Homefront and, finally, presenting to the warring allies the haunting dream of One World.
The story began in 1892 when Willkie was born into an exciting and stimulating family in Ellwood, Indiana. His parents practiced law together; his grandmother was a physician; an aunt was a preacher. Young Willkie joined his brothers and a sister at a rooming house in Bloomington and became known as a campus radical and disputatious student. After graduation and a short stint as a teacher and roustabout, he returned to Indiana University School of Law, was graduated in 1916 and joined his father in Elwood to begin practice.
After army service, Willkie left Elwood for a position with Firestone Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. He then became a partner in a leading law firm in Akron. By 1929 he had gained credit for having transformed his client, Ohio Edison, into a "reformed utility." Wall Street beckoned, and he became general counsel for Commonwealth and Southern, a sprawling utility holding company. The depression brought near bankruptcy to his employer, but to Willkie it was a call to assume its presidency. He turned the company to profitability, gaining a name as a resourceful manager. In his most noted struggle, he was pitted against the federal government and the Tennessee Valley Authority. A war it was, and Willkie won. He got his price for the Tennessee Power Company and became a favorite of executives drawn into conflict with the New Deal.
He founded the still eminent law firm of Willkie, Farr and Gallagher and, in periodicals and from the podium, became the spokesman for the embattled businessman. In this way he was drawn inexorably to his rendezvous with the nation's destiny in 1940.
Wendell Willkie died in 1944 at the height of his powers. He left his family his Hoosier heritage. He left a nation bemused by his dazzling career. He left guidance in the continuing duel between private enterprise and public welfare. He left a dream of a world where nations submerge their parochial passions for peace and cooperation.
Wendell Willkie was installed in the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1988.
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George Washington Henley, Jr.
George Washington Henley, Jr. has the distinction of serving just sixty-nine days on the Indiana Supreme Court, the second shortest term of any justice. Born in Washington, D. C., in 1890, Henley’s parents moved to Bloomington, Indiana, when young George was five year’s old. Henley attended local public schools before entering Indiana University where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1913. A year later he received his law degree from the I.U. School of Law. Upon graduation, he began practicing law in Bloomington with his uncle.
Henley was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1939, serving until 1949. He was majority leader of the House in 1943, 1945, and 1947. He served on the Wendell Willkie Notification Committee in 1945 and was the permanent chair of the 1946 State Republican Convention. He served as the attorney to the I.U. Board of Trustees, and ultimately was elected to the Board, serving from 1945 until 1951.
On March 15, 1955, Henley was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court by Governor George S. Craig to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Frank Earl Gilkison. According to historian Colleen Pauwels, “Henley accepted the appointment as the Courts eighty-sixth judge with the understanding that it would be for no longer than the remainder of the term of the Court, which was to conclude on May 21, 1955.” Craig made the temporary appointment to give himself time to find permanent appointees for two vacancies on the court. After his court service, Henley returned to Bloomington where he became active in a variety of civic organizations and served on numerous boards of directors. Henley died, in Bloomington, on February 19, 1965 and is interned in that city’s Rose Hill Cemetery.
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Sherman A. Minton
Sherman Minton was born in Georgetown, Indiana, on October 20, 1890. Minton’s childhood was dominated by his parents’ attempt to improve the family economic condition. In an effort to help the family out, fifteen year-old Sherman moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to live with his older brother and work in the Swift meatpacking plant for twelve and-a-half cents an hour. Ultimately the rest of the family joined the brothers in Fort Worth, but after a year and-a-half, Sherman moved back to Indiana to live with relatives and continue his education. Minton attended New Albany High School, where he excelled not only in academics and public speaking, but in sports – playing football, baseball, and track. He returned to the Swift plant each summer to help the family, before graduating in 1910.
Minton attended Indiana University from 1911-1915, completing his undergraduate classes in 1913 and graduating from the law school in 1915. As an undergraduate, Minton was a fraternity brother with future Indiana Governor, Paul V. McNutt, while in law school he was a classmate with future Republican Presidential candidate, Wendell L. Willkie (class of 1916.) After law school Minton attended Yale, where he received a L.L.M degree in 1917. Minton served in the U.S. Army during World War I and then set up practice in New Albany. Minton was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, before being appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by Franklin Roosevelt in 1940. Nine years later, Harry Truman nominated him to the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite not testifying before the Senate (Minton felt his record on the bench spoke for itself) he was confirmed to the nation's highest court with a Senate vote of 48-16.
Justice Minton was noted for his broad view of government powers and for his abhorrence of racial segregation, which he voted to strike down in Brown v. Board of Education. He retired from the Court in 1956 on account of health problems, including the effects of pernicious anemia; he died in 1965. Upon retirement, the humble Justice Minton observed: "There will be more interest in who will succeed me than in my passing. I'm an echo."
Minton was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Alumni Fellows in 1985. Minton is the namesake to the school's annual Moot Court competition.
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Antonio de las Alas
Antonio de las Alas was born in Taal, Batangas Province, on the Philippine Island of Luzon, on September 12, 1888 (many profiles list his birth as October 14, 1889). After graduating from Batangas High School, he was selected to be one of the 100 Philippine students to participate in the Pensionado program that sent exceptional Philippine students to America to attend a U.S. college. As a result, arived in in Bloomington in the fall of 1905, ultimately receiving his LL.B. from Indiana University School of Law in the spring of 1908.
De las Alas was one of at least seven Pensiondo students to attend the Indiana University Law School. Others include Jorge Cleofas Bocobo (LL.B. 1907), Franciso Afan Delgado (LL.B. 1097), Mariano Honrade de Joya (LL.B. 1907), Proceso Gonzalez Sanchez LL.B. 1908), Pedro V. Sindico, and Jose Valdez.
After receving his LL.B. degree, he attended the Yale University Law School, where he received his LL.M. in 1909. He then returned to the Philippines and worked at the Executive Bureau from 1910 to 1920, rising to Chief of the Bureau. In 1920, he was appointed Undersecretary of the Interior, followed by Acting Secretary of the Interior, and finally Acting Secretary of Justice. In 1922, he was elected to the Philippines Congress and would be re-elected four times. In Congress, he would serve as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee and Speaker Pro-Tempore. In 1933, he was appointed Minister of Public Works and Communications.
When the nation's Commonwealth era begain in 1935, de las Alas served as a member of the Constitutional Convention for the new constitution. In 1936, he was appointed Minister of Finance. In 1941 he was elected to the Senate. During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, during WWII, de las Alas was a member of the controversial Filipino Executive Commission that worked with the Japanese occupiers. After the war, he was charged with treason and imprisoned. In 1946, he was acquitted and released. Three years later, he was appointed a member of the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of the Philippines (1959-1955). He also served as Chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce (1951-53).
De las Alas served as President of the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation from 1956 to 1968, was President of the Great Pacific Life Insurance Corp, from 1956 to 1969, was Chairman of the Rizal Development Bank from 1960 to 1963.
Antonio de las Alas was awarded the Outstanding Indiana University Alumnus of the Year award by the Philippine I.U. Alumni Association in 1959. He received the Indiana University Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 1978. He died in Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 94 in 1983.
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Curtis Grover Shake
Curtis G. Shake was born on July 14, 1887 in Monroe City, Knox County, Indiana. In 1905 he earned his teaching license from attending Vincennes University. He taught school for 2 years, and then entered law school at Indiana University in Bloomington. He graduated in 1910 and returned to Knox County, choosing to set up his practice in the town of Bicknell. In 1916 he moved to the county seat of Vincennes. In 1926 he was elected state senator for Knox and Daviess counties, and then in 1928 he was the Democratic nominee for Indiana attorney general. The Republicans swept the election that year, and Shake returned to his law practice in Vincennes.
In 1937, President Roosevelt appointed Indiana Supreme Court justice Walter Treanor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, opening up a spot on the Indiana Supreme Court. Governor Clifford Townsend appointed Shake to fill out the remainder of Justice Treanor’s term. Justice Shake was elected in his own right in 1938, and would serve on the Supreme Court until 1945. He was chief justice three times, and he also became nationally known for his work mediating labor disputes. His most significant opinion from the bench was in Warren v. Indiana Telephone Company which firmly established that the Supreme Court was the court of last resort in Indiana, and the Indiana Court of Appeals was subservient to the Supreme Court.
Justice Shake retired from the Court in 1945 and returned to his law practice in Vincennes. In 1947 he was appointed to the war crimes trials in Nuremburg, Germany. This led him to serving as the presiding judge in the I.G. Farben case. He later revealed his mixed feelings about the Nuremberg tribunals.
In 1948 Justice Shake returned to Vincennes where he practiced law until his retirement in 1973 at the age of 86. He died on September 11, 1978 at the age of 91, and he was interred at the Memorial Park Cemetery in Vincennes.
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Franciso Afan Delgado
Francisco Afan Delgado was born in the Bulacan Province, of the Philippine Islands, on January 25, 1886. After his early education in the Philippines, Delgado was selected to be one of the 100 Philippine students to participate in the Pensionado program that sent exceptional Philippine students to America to attend a U.S. college.
Delgado is one of at least seven Pensiondo students to attend the Indiana University Law School. Others include Antonio de las Alas (LL.B. 1908), Jorge Cleofas Bocobo (LL.B. 1907), Mariano Honrade de Joya (LL.B. 1907), Proceso Gonzalez Sanchez LL.B. 1908), Jose Valdez, and Pedro V. Sindico.
Before enrolling at Indiana University, Delgado completed his high school education in the Los Angeles area. He then traveled to Bloomington where he received his LL.B. degree from Indiana in 1907 and briefly practiced law with the Indianapolis firm of Chambers, Pikins, Morse and Davidson. In 1909 he received his LL.M. degree from Yale.
After his education in the United States, Delgado returned to the Philippines and worked as a law clerk, ultimately rising to the position of Chief of the Law Division of the Executive Bureau. He left the government in 1913 to set up a private practice. Delgado was elected to the Philippines House of Representatives in 1931 and was appointed Resident Commissioner of the United States from the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands in 1935. In 1936, he was appointed to the Philippine Court of Appeals.
After WW II, Delgado served as a member of the Philippines War Damages Commission (1946-19510), was elected to the Philippine Senate (1951-1957), and served as Ambassador to the United Nations (1958-1962).
Francisco Afan Delgado died in Manila on October 27, 1964, at the age of 78.
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Jorge Cleofas Bocobo
Jorge Cleofas Bocobo was born in Gerona, Tarlac Province, on the Philippine island of Luzon, on October 19, 1886. His early education was in his hometown, but at the age of 17 he travelled to Manila to attend a private school. In 1904, he was selected to be one of the 100 Philippine students to participate in the Pensionado program that sent exceptional Philippine students to America to attend a U.S. college. Bocobo is one of at least seven Pensiondo students to attend the Indiana University Law School. Others include Antonio de las Alas (LL.B. 1908), Franciso Afan Delgado (LL.B. 1097), Mariano Honrade de Joya (LL.B. 1907), Proceso Gonzalez Sanchez LL.B. 1908), Jose Valdez, and Pedro V. Sindico.
Before entering the Indiana University School of Law, Bocobo finished his high school education in San Diego, California. During his second and third year at IU, Bocobo was a member of the law school’s Reinhard Club. In June of 1907, Bocobo received his LL.B. degree from IU.
He then returned to the Philippines, where he became a clerk at the Executive Bureau. In 1910 he joined the faculty of College of Law at the University of the Philippines, becoming an Assistant Professor of Civil Law in 1914. In 1917 he became a Full Professor and was named interim Dean of the school. Bocobo served as the acting President of the University in 1927 and 1928, before being named the President of the University in 1934. He served as University President until 1939. In 1939, he was appointed Secretary of Public Instruction, in President Manuel Quezon’s cabinet.
During the Japanese occupation (1941-44), Bocobo assisted the administration of President Laurel, serving as a Justice of the Supreme Court (1942-44). As a result working with the Japanese, he was charged with treason after the war. He was sent to prison, but ultimately was cleared of all charges and released. From 1947 to 1962 he served as the Chairman of the Code Commission, and was the principal author of the Civil Code of the Philippines.
Bocobo received numerous awards for public service during his lifetime, and was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Southern California (1931), Indiana University (1951), and the University of the Philippines (1953). Jorge C. Bocobo died on July 23, 1965. Bocobo was postumoulsy inducted into the Indiana University Maurer School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 2019.
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Mariano Honrade de Joya
Mariano Honrade de Joya was born on September 8, 1886, in Batangas, Philippine Islands (some documentation indicates his birth years as 1887). After being educated in the Philippines, de Joya was selected to be one of the 100 Philippine students to participate in the Pensionado program that sent exceptional Philippine students to America to attend college. He came to the US and finished his high school education in California, before enrolling at Indiana University. De Joya was one of at least seven Pensionado students to study law at Indiana. The others include Antonio de las Alas (LL.B. 1908), Jorge Cleofas Bocobo (LL.B. 1907), Franciso Afan Delgado (LL. B. 1907), Proceso Gonzalez Sanchez LL.B. 1908), Jose Valdez, and Pedro V. Sindico.
After receiving his LL.B. from Indiana in 1906, de Joya attended the Yale Law School where he received his LL.M. (1907). Upon returning to the Philippines, he initially worked as a translator for the Bureau of Justice. In 1911, he became District Attorney for the island's Misamis, Agusan and Surigao provinces. From 1913 until 1917, he served as the District Attorney for Manila, before becoming a professor of law at the University of the Philippines. In 1921, de Joya became a judge on the Philippines Court of First Instance, and after the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, served briefly on the country's new Supreme Court.
After retiring from the court, de Joya practiced law in Manila and returned to teaching and writing. He died at the age of 76 in 1964.
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Curtis William Roll
Curtis W. Roll was born on August 29, 1884 in Fredericksburg, Washington County, Indiana. He attended Indiana University, receiving his A.B. in 1909 and his LL.B. from the law school in 1912. He was admitted to the bar in 1912 and began his legal practice in Howard County. He was the Howard County attorney from 1913 to 1914, and he was a prosecuting attorney from 1912 to 1931. In 1930 he ran for a seat on the Indiana Supreme Court and was elected in the Democratic wave of that year.
Justice Roll would serve on the Indiana Supreme Court for 12 years, from January 1931 to January 1943. He authored numerous opinions during his tenure, including two significant ones with noted political repercussions. In 1938 Raymond Willis, the defeated Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and eleven other candidates brought suit seeking recounts in seven counties, due to alleged fraud and other irregularities. The Court unanimously rejected the appeal, stating that recounts for state and senatorial race had to be done statewide. Another significant case involved an attempt by the General Assembly in 1941 to strip Governor Harry Schricker of virtually all his powers. The Court held that the laws were unconstitutional and a violation of the separation of powers.
Justice Roll declined to run for a third term on the Court in 1942. He returned to private practice, first in Indianapolis and then in 1948 to Kokomo. He remained active in the practice of law until his death on November 8, 1970. He was buried in the Paoli Community Cemetery in Paoli, Orange County, Indiana.
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Proceso Gonzalez Sanchez
Proceso Gonzalez Sanchez was born on July 4, 1884, in Bacolor Pampanga, Philippine Islands (Note: some records list his date of birth to be July 2, 1886, and the spelling of his first name to be Processo). Sanchez received his preparatory training at the Tarlac High School in Tarlac City, Philippines. Sanchez was selected to be one of the 100 Philippine students to participate in the 1905 Pensionado program that sent exceptional Philippine students to America to attend a U.S. college. As a result Sanchez enrolled at Indiana University and received his LL.B degree from the law school in 1908. He is one of at least seven Pensiondo students to attend the Indiana University Law School in the early 1900s. Others include Antonio de las Alas (LL.B. 1908), Jorge Cleofas Bocobo (LL.B. 1907), Franciso Afan Delgado (LL.B. 1097), Mariano Honrade de Joya (LL.B. 1907), Jose Valdez, and Pedro V. Sindico.
After receiving his LL.B. from Indiana, Sanchez attended the Yale School of Law and received his Masters of Laws, Cum Laude, in 1909. Sanchez returned to the Philippines after his U.S. education and served as a clerk in the Court of Land Registration, before working for the Bureau of Education, and eventually in the Law Division of the Executive Bureau. In 1912, he was admitted to practice law in the Philippines and in 1913 began working for the Bureau of Justice. He was soon appointed a special assistant representing the government in land cases in Bataan Province. He also served as special prosecuting attorney of Tayabas and Bulacan, as well as prosecuting attorney in Bataan.
While serving as special prosecuting attorney in Bulacan, Proceso Gonzalez Sanchez's life was tragically cut short when he contracted typhoid fever and died in 1915.
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Walter Emanuel Treanor
Walter E. Treanor was born on November 17, 1883 in Loogootee, Indiana. He attended Indiana University, receiving his A.B. in 1912. After graduation he was a Latin and history teacher, football coach, principal, and eventually the superintendent of schools in Petersburg, Indiana. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 34. He served overseas in the 325th Field Artillery, eventually rising to the rank of Second Lieutenant. After his discharge in 1919, he returned to Indiana and enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law. Upon earning his LL.B. degree in 1922, he joined the faculty at the Law School.
Treanor taught at the Law School from 1922 to 1930, teaching in the areas of property, constitutional law, and procedure. He helped to found the Indiana Law Journal and he served as the editor and faculty advisor. In 1930, he ran for a seat on the Indiana Supreme Court and was elected. He was reelected in 1936. Then in December 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt nominated Treanor for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. His sponsor was Senator Sherman Minton, a fellow alumnus of the Law School. Treanor was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 21, 1937.
Judge Treanor served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit until his death on April 26, 1941. He died in Indianapolis after being hospitalized for two weeks. His funeral was held on the Indiana University campus at Bloomington and then he was interred at the Walnut Hills Cemetery in Petersburg, Indiana.
Walter Treanor received an LL.D. from Indiana University in 1939. In 1990, he was inducted into the Academy of Law Alumni Fellows.
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Fred Carl Gause
Fred Carl Gause was born on August 29, 1879 in Greensfork, Wayne County, Indiana. His father, Dr. Thomas Gause died two years later, and his mother Christine Boone Gause moved the family to Henry County. Gause graduated from New Castle High School in 1897 and he enrolled at Indiana University, graduating from the law department in 1899. He returned to New Castle and read law under John Morris and Eugene Bundy. He was admitted to the bar in 1900, and he began his solo law practice in New Castle. He also served as the county attorney for Henry County from 1902 to 1912.
In 1914, Gause was elected judge of the Henry Circuit Court. He was reelected in 1920 and served until November 1, 1923 when Governor Warren McCray appointed him to fill out the term of Justice Howard Townsend. During his tenure on the Court, Justice Gause was a prolific writer, authoring more opinions than all other justices except for Justice Louis Ewbank. Upon the completion of his term, Justice Gause decided to not stand for election and return to private practice. He practice law in Indianapolis for nearly 20 years, serving as the president of the Indiana State Bar Association in 1936 and president of the Indianapolis Bar Association in 1941. He also served as a commissioner of the Indiana State Election Board for many years.
Justice Gause died at his home in Indianapolis on February 15, 1944. He was interred at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
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Frank Earl Gilkison
Frank E. Gilkison was born on November 3, 1877 in Rutherford Township, Martin County, Indiana. He attended a one-room schoolhouse for his early education, while he was required to board for secondary school in Loogootee and Shoals. He entered the Indiana University School of Law in 1899 and graduated in 1901. He was admitted to the bar and he returned to Martin County to set up his law practice. He practiced law for 33 years until he was elected judge of the Forty-Ninth Judicial Circuit (Daviess and Martin counties) in 1934. He was reelected in 1940, and then he was elected to the Indiana Supreme Court on the Republican ticket in 1944.
Justice Gilkison was known as an intellectual, having extensively read the classics and the Bible. He was a firm believer personal liberty and inalienable rights. He also place the value of human beings over the rights of property, particularly as it related to children. His dissents in two cases involving the rights of property owners verses the safety of children have subsequently been adopted in to Indiana law.
Justice Gilkison served on the Indiana Supreme Court until his tragic and unexpected death on February 25, 1955.
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James Peter Hughes
James P. Hughes was born on December 18, 1874 in Vigo County, Indiana. His family subsequently moved to Putnam County, which would be his home for the rest of his life. He attended the Putnam County public schools, and then he earned his undergraduate degree from DePauw in 1898. He then attended the Indiana University law school, receiving his degree in 1900. He was admitted to the bar and began his legal practice that same year. In 1902 he was appointed deputy prosecuting attorney for the Clay-Putnam Circuit Courts, and in 1904 he was promoted to prosecuting attorney. In 1911 Governor Thomas Marshall appointed Hughes to the Putnam County Circuit Court. He was elected four times to this position, serving on the bench for more than 20 years.
In 1933, Justice Hughes joined the Indiana Supreme Court, where he would serve for one term. His opinions were filled with history and literature, highlighting his unique knowledge of both topics. In 1937, his opinion in Carroll Perfumers v. State received national attention because of his references to the Bible (Exodus 30:25), English laws during Henry VIII, and act 1, scene 5 from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Justice Hughes wanted to serve another term on the Court, but a split in the Democratic Party led him to decline to be placed in nomination. After leaving the Court, Hughes served in the Indiana Attorney General’s office until 1941, whereupon he returned to private practice in Greencastle. In 1945 President Harry Truman appointed Hughes to the Federal Railroad Labor Panel, mediating labor and wage disputes with railroads across the country.
Justice Hughes eventually retired from his law practice and was content to spend his time farming his Putnam County farm. He died there on August 30, 1961 and was buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Greencastle, Indiana.
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Tamar (Althouse) Scholz
In 1892, when few women ventured from the traditional confines of domestic life, 20-year-old Tamar Althouse received her LL.B. degree, becoming the first woman graduate of the Law School. Althouse was born in New Harmony, Indiana, in 1872. She graduated from high school at 17 and came to Indiana University to study law. Together with sixteen men, she graduated in 1892. Althouse sought a legal education during a time when women rarely were so bold. Coeducation, although begun in 1833 with the founding of Oberlin, was still an experiment when she was born. By 1870, only eight state universities, including Indiana, accepted women students. Through the end of the 19th century, so few women attended college, that most found it a lonely and isolating experience. As the first woman graduate of the Law School, Tamar Althouse was a pioneer in legal education. Both as a student and practicing attorney, she blazed new trails for the cause of professional women in Indiana.
After her law school graduation, Althouse was admitted to the bar in 1893 at the age of 21. She accepted a position in the law office of J. E. Williamson in Evansville and became the first woman to practice in Vanderburg County. Although she continued her law practice in Evansville for many years, she also served as court reporter for Vanderburg County, from 1903 to 1915. Althouse also served on the staff of the State Speaker of the House, Al Venaman, and in 1924 she was connected with the Indiana Public Service Commission on special duty.
Althouse's passion for women's rights issues was first evidenced in a piece she wrote for the Indiana Student while in law school (see below). Finding her career as Evansville's only woman attorney solitary, Althouse sought out women colleagues in businesses and professions in the city. In 1914 Althouse was one of the founding directors of the Women's Rotary in Evansville, the first Women's Rotary in the nation. In her words, it was established to "inspire a greater spirit of co-operation and inculcate broader and more vigorous business views among those women who are engaged in independent business or professions." There were thirteen members in this new group. By 1916, the group was fifty strong and Althouse was president of the organization, an office she held twice. In early 1919, Althouse was asked by Indianapolis business women to come to that city to assist them in organizing a Women's Rotary. The Women's Rotaries established all over the country during the next few decades obtained their charter and were founded on the principles of the Evansville club. Althouse, through her work with the Women's Rotary became active with the Indiana Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs and served as the national vice president of that organization.
In the mid-1920s, Althouse retired from the practice of law to devote time to the care of her husband, prominent Evansville businessman Frederick J. Scholz, who became paralyzed and needed full-time care. The two were married in 1915. Although her activities were reduced, she remained involved in her professional work through the mid-30s. In November 1936, four months after her husband, Tamar Althouse Scholz died at the age of 64.
Tamar Althouse Scholz was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Alumni Fellows in 1992.
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Masuji Miyakawa
Born in 1870 in Fukushima, Japan, Masuji Miyakawa came to America when he was in his early twenties to attend school. By the time he arrived in Bloomington, he had received degrees from George Washington (LL.M.) and University of Illinois (D.C.L.). To that, he added his LL.B. in 1905, becoming the Law School’s first Asian-American graduate. While in Bloomington he became a naturalized citizen of the United States, and would go on to become the first Japanese American admitted to the bar in the United States.
After law school, Miyakawa embarked on an impressive career as a lawyer, scholar, journalist, lecturer, and advocate for the rights of Japanese immigrants. He resided both in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, working to build understanding of the Japanese people. In 1906, he helped win the rights for Japanese children to attend the San Francisco public schools. He fought against a movement to broaden the treaty restrictions on the immigration of Japanese laborers, and he served as the defense attorney for the first case tried under the American-Japanese extradition treaty.
In the early years of the American Bar Association, he served as an editor on its Comparative Law Bureau. He was the author of several books on both American law and Japanese culture, including Life of Japan (1907), and he was the editor of the New York Japan Review (1913-1914) He was a frequent lecturer throughout the United States on the importance of peace and understanding between the nations and was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees.
One of the most remarkable Japanese Americans, and widely known throughout Japan and America, Miyakawa had an impeccable and enviable reputation among his colleagues. Miyakawa was a deep thinker, talented speaker, and prolific writer who brought great honor to the School of Law and to Indiana University. Masuji Miyakawa died in 1916. He was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law’s Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 2006.
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Samuel Saul Dargan
Samuel S. Dargan was the first African-American graduate of Indiana University School of Law. Dargan was a dedicated law librarian and active community member, who worked to expand educational and professional opportunities for African-Americans.
Dargan was born on December 21, 1869, in Rochester, New York. He attended Cornell University and MIT, and ultimately graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor's degree in science in 1905. Dargan began his legal studies at IU in 1905, and in 1906 he won the junior year oratory prize for his speech "Tariff in the United States." He received his LLB in 1909.
The legal profession afforded few opportunities to African-American lawyers in Dargan's day, and so he accepted the position of assistant law librarian at IU. From 1924 until his retirement in 1948, he held the position of Curator of Law. While working at the Law School, Dargan also operated a business selling law books to students. He was beloved by the law students, and his generosity and quiet dedication to the students earned him the title "father of the IU Law School." Renowned graduates of the day like Wendell Willkie, Sherman Minton, William Jenner, Paul Jasper, and John Hastings remained close to Dargan throughout his life.
With his Law School salary and the proceeds from his book business, Dargan purchased several properties on the west side of the IU campus. He operated several boarding houses for African-American students who were not permitted to occupy any university housing until after World War II. The Dargan House became the first residence for African-American women students, and his other houses served as social centers for black students. Kappa Alpha Psi, the first black fraternity on campus, leased one of Dargan's properties.
In the 1940s, Dargan served on the Bloomington Draft Board, and also on a committee of prominent African-Americans who developed ways of helping Bloomington's black population secure jobs on national defense projects.
When Dargan retired in 1948, a group of law alumni honored him with a portrait in appreciation for "looking after us like a brother and a father." Dargan died in 1954 at the age of 84 and is buried in Bloomington’s Rose Hill Cemetery.
In 1988, he was inducted into the Monroe County Hall of Fame for his community service to Bloomington and IU. He was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 2009. Additionally, each year the Indiana University School of Law’s Black Law Student Association presents the Samuel S. Dargan award to a distinguished alumnus for continued involvement with the BLSA and Law School communities.
In 2018, the block of Indiana Ave. between 3rd Street and 4th Street (the block of Indiana Ave. that the law school sits on) was designated Samual Dargan Way.
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Joseph S. Dailey
Joseph S. Dailey was born on May 31, 1844 in Wells County, Indiana. After graduating from the Wells County Public Schools, he studied law with a local attorney while teaching school to raise enough money to attend Indiana University at Bloomington. He graduated from the law department in 1866, and was admitted to the bar. In his first year of practice he was elected district attorney of the Wells County common pleas court.
In 1868, Dailey was elected prosecutor for the Tenth Judicial District, for Adams, Allen, Huntington, Wells, and Whitley counties. He served in this office until 1876, and then in 1878 he was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives. In 1882 he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1888 he was elected judge of the circuit court for Huntington and Wells counties, where he served until his appointment to the Indiana Supreme Court in 1893.
Justice Dailey was appointed to the court to fill out the term of Justice Walter Olds. He served on the court from July 25, 1893 to January 7, 1895. He was defeated for a full term in the 1894 election. During his brief tenure on the Court, he authored more than 80 opinions. On leaving the Court, he returned to Wells County to practice law with his son. He died at his home on October 9, 1905 and was buried in the Elm Grove Cemetery in Wells County.
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Arthur Calvin Mellette
Arthur Calvin Mellette was born on June 23, 1842, in Henry County, Indiana. His early education was at the Marion Academy and the Grant County Academy. He then enrolled at Indiana University, graduating in 1863. During the last years of the Civil War, he served in the 9th Indiana Volunteers (1864-65). After the war, he enrolled at the IU school of law and received his LL.B. degree in 1866. After graduation, Mellette formed a law partnership with Thomas J. Brady in Muncie, Indiana. While in Muncie, he purchased the Muncie Times newspaper, which he would run for eight years (1870-1878). Additionally, he was elected Delaware County district attorney in 1870 and a member of the Indiana House of Representatives in 1873.
When, in 1878, his wife (Margaret Wylie - daughter of early Indiana University faculty member Theophilus Wylie) became sick, he moved the family to Springfield in the Dakota Territory, in hopes that a different climate would improve her health. There, he served as registrar of the United States Land Office. The family moved to Watertown, DT, a few years later where he became a prosperous attorney and leading citizen of the town.
A strong advocate for statehood, Mellette was appointed the tenth, and last, governor of the Dakota Territory in March of 1889. When, a few months later, statehood was granted to the new North and South Dakota, Mellette was elected the first governor of the state of South Dakota. He served two, two-year, terms and retired.
Mellette died at the age of 53, in 1895, while in Pittsburg, Kansas