George E. Palmer, Professor of Law, has retired from active faculty status as of May 31, 1978, after a devoted career of teaching and research.

Professor Palmer was born in Washington, Indiana in 1908. He received both his A.B. (1930) and his J.D. (1932) from The University of Michigan. From 1932 to 1939 he was engaged in private law practice in Indianapolis. He then did a year of graduate study at Columbia, obtaining an LL.M. in 1940. Professor Palmer began teaching as an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Kansas in 1940, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1945.

His teaching was interrupted during World War II, when he spent three years as counsel for the Office of Price Administration and served a further short stint as an attorney in the Department of Justice. Professor Palmer came to Michigan as an Associate Professor of Law in 1946. He was advanced to full Professor in 1951. The teaching specialties of Professor Palmer include Remedies, Restitution, and Trusts and Estates. Over the years he has produced numerous articles marked by meticulous scholarship and impeccable style. His books include Mistake and Unjust Enrichment (1962), Cases on Trusts and Succession (1968), and Cases on Restitution (1969). This year he will crown his career with the publication of a four-volume treatise that promises to be the definitive word on The Law of Restitution.

In an era that has increasingly succumbed to elaborate and often-impenetrable statutes and regulations, Professor Palmer has been hailed as "The Last Great Common Lawyer." For generations of Michigan students who have sat dazzled (and sometimes quaking) in his classroom, the image of him deftly cutting through the verbiage of some appellate judge's opinion to the solid bedrock of fact beneath will long be one of the most cherished memories of their law school years.

The Regents now salute this gifted lawyer and educator for his long service to The University of Michigan by naming him Professor Emeritus of Law.