Bates Retiring After 29-Year Deanship


Retirement Of Law School Head This June Finds School He Has Served 
For Over A Quarter Of A Century Among Top-Ranking Legal Institu
tions Of The Nation.

E. Blythe Stason, Former Student Of Retiring 
Dean, Chosen To Replace Him In Summer. 


With the retirement of Dean 
Henry Moore Bates at the
 conclusion of his twenty-ninth 
year of administration approaching in
 June, the realization has come, not 
only to the University of Michigan
 Law School but to the University as a
 whole, that a career significant in more 
than a quarter of a century of the Law
 School's history nears its close. At the
 same time, a new administrator arises 
in the Law School just seventeen years 
after his graduation from it and fifteen
 
years after becoming a member of the 
faculty, as E. Blythe Stason, '221, a 
graduate under Dean Bates, prepares
 to take up duties as Dean of one of the 
finest institutions of legal instruction 
in the United States. 


A far cry it is from the law school
 Henry Moore Bates came to direct in
1910 to the distinguished school he is 
leaving today. During the intervening 
period has come a marked change in
 curricul a, bringing about greater emphasis on the economic and social as
pects of the law, as the study of re
ports of actual cases, statutes, and
 extra-legal materials related to and influencing the development of law has 
superseded the old lecture and text book system. Requirements have stif
fened, too, for high school graduates once entered Michigan's Law School
 without other preparation, whereas to-
day 153 colleges in all are represented
 among its enrollment, and in its Fresh-
man class last fall could be found
 students from 90 colleges and universities. Materially, the Law School has
 also prospered, for it has acquired the 
beautiful architecture and the comfort
able quarters of the William W. Cook 
Quadrangle, a gift from a distin
guished alumnus. 


The faculty of the "Law Department'' in 1910 consisted of Jerome 
Knowlton, Bradley M. Thompson, Vic
tor H. Lane, Horace L. Wilgus, Robert
 E. Bunker, James H. Brewster, Frank 
L. Sage, Edwin C. Goddard, Edson R. 
 Sunderland, John W. Dwyer, John R. 
 Rood, Thomas A. Bogle, and Otto 
Kirchner. Comparison of these men
 with today's faculty shows the change
 over the years in conception of what
 should comprise a law faculty, for of 
these thirteen nearly all were former 
practitioners and judges, while the 
nineteen members today, fifteen of
 whom were graduates during the ten
ure of Dean Bates as head of the 
School, are, for the most part, legal 
scholars. 


These students of the retiring Dean
 shared his classrooms with many an
other distinguished American citizen, 
 as evidenced by a roster of some of the
 students at Michigan's Law School during this period. There is Frank Mur
phy, Attorney-General of the United
 States and former Governor of Michigan; former Michigan Governor Wil
bur M. Brucker; Senators Henry F. 
 Ashurst, Sheridan Downey, and Bur
ton K. Wheeler; Thomas McAllister, 
 of the Michigan Supreme Court; Her
bert B. Rudolph, of the Supreme
 Court of South Dakota; Regent David
 Crowley and Regent-elect Joseph Her
bert; Elwyn Shaw, Chief Justice of the 
Illinois Supreme Court; William J. 
Steinert, Chief Justice of the Washing
ton Supreme Court; New York Dis
trict Attorney Thomas M. Dewey, and 
George Malcolm, former Chief Justice
 of the Philippine Supreme Court and
 at present legal advisor to the Amer
ican High Commissioner, to name only
 a few.


Dean Bates' own collegiate and educational career began with his enroll
ment in the College of Literature, 
 Science and the Arts, October 6, 1886, 
 at the age of 17. Armed with a degree 
of Bachelor of Philosophy, he entered 
Union College of Law, then only form
ally a department of Northwestern
 University, where he obtained his
 LL.B. degree in 1892. The practice of 
law in Chicago as partner in the firm
 of Harlan & Bates followed, with his
 call to a professorship bringing him to
 Ann Arbor in 1903. He became Dean
 in 1910, succeeding Harry B. Hutch
ins, who at that time took office as 
President of the University. 



Dean Bates has served in a public
 capacity on many occasions through
out his years as a leader among edu
cators in the law. During the term of 
Herbert Hoover as President, he was
 called as one of the three representa
tives of the public on the Committee
 of Nine for Conservation of Oil, and
 during the historic battle in Washington over the Roosevelt plan to change
 the Supreme Court, he appeared as an
 authority on constitutional law to tes
tify against the proposal, at that time 
finding himself in close association
 with two of his former students, Sena
tors Ashurst and Wheeler, the former 
being Chairman of the Senate com
mittee which held the hearing, and the 
latter leader of the opposition to the
 plan. In addition, he served as Com
missioner for Michigan at the Na
tional Conference on Uniform State
 Laws until 1933. 


His active participation in the
 affairs of state and national organizations for the advancement of
 standards in the legal profession is 
attested to by some of the connec
tions he is holding or has held
 with various organizations in the 
field, including membership on the 
National Advisory Committee of the 
Institute of Law, Presidency of the
 Association of American Law Schools 
(1913-1914), as an organizer of the
 American Law Institute, Director of 
the American Judicature Society, as
 member of the American Academy of 
Sciences and Arts, and National Presi
dent of Coif (1916-1919). He has also
 been author of numerous articles in 
the bar association journals of Michi
gan, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and
 Kansas. 


These activities in connection with
 the law have not kept Dean Bates 
from indulging other interests to the
 profit of Michigan's student body on
 many occasions. As an alumnus in
 Chicago in 1892-1903, he took an ac
tive interest in the University's athletics program. The Big Ten Confer
ence was organized while he resided 
in Chicago, and he became Michigan's 
representative and President of the 
Board. He was a member of the Mich
igan Board in Control for two years
 after coming to the Campus to join 
the Law faculty. The organization of 
the Michigan Union in the same year 
that Dean Bates came back to Ann
 Arbor was more than a coincidence, 
 for he has long been recognized as an 
instigator of this development from its
 inception in 1903 through its form
ative years down to 1905 after the
 Union had been incorporated in 1904. 
He was chairman of the campaign 
committee for funds and of the build
ing committee on plans; served as a 
member of its Board until 1929, and
 was from the first its Financial Secretary-Treasurer. 


The retirement of Dean Bates from 
the Commission on Uniform State 
Laws in 1933 brought to that body, as 
his retirement from Deanship this
 spring brings to the Law School, a
 legal scholar and administrator whose
 varied educational career and swift
 rise as a member of the University's 
executive force has been signalized by
 energy and ability.