Curtis Named Dean of Law at W&M

• Main Author: Richmond Times-Dispatch
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository 1963
• Subjects: 1935-1966 Documents; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/jcurtis/4; https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=jcurtis

WILLIAMSBURG -- Jan. 15-- Joseph Curtis has been named dean of the Marshall-Wythe school of law at the College of William & Mary, the college announced Wednesday. Curtis has been acting dean since 1962. A native of New York and a graduate of the New York University law school, Curtis has been a member of the faculty here since 1948. For the past 10 years he has been closely associated with the college's pioneer graduate program in law and taxation. "Selection of a dean for the mother of many of the earlier American law school is a particularly serious responsibility," said Judge Sterling Hutcheson, rector of the college's board of visitors. "There is a high tradition and a challenging heritage which ahs come to us from the first and second law professors in America who occupied this chair." The law school here, oldest in the country, was established at the suggestion of Thomas Jefferson in 1779. The first occupant of the college's chair of law was George Wythe and the second was St. George Tucker. Lewis Powell, Richmond attorney and president-elect of the American Bar Association, said that "all those interested in legal education in Virginia will be gratified." "Mr. Curtis' fine record as a faculty member and authority in the field of taxation indicates that he will give strong leadership to our oldest law school at a time when it has many opportunities for increased service to the commonwealth and the legal profession," he said. Curtis received his BS and LLB degrees from New York University in 1934 and 1937. He served in the army air corps from 1941 to 1946 and attained the rank of major. Following the war he completed work for his LLM degree at NYU. He is married to the former Miss Joyce Phillips of St. Johns Newfoundland. Their three sons are Andrew, 20, a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Kevin, a student at the college here, and Joel, 13. The new dean is a member of the American Law Institute, the Virginia State Bar, and the committee on small law school of the Association of American Law Schools.