The Faculty History Project documents faculty members who have been associated with the University of Michigan since 1837. Key in this effort is to celebrate the intellectual life of the University. This Faculty History Website is intended as a component of the effort to document the extraordinary academic achievements of Michigan’s faculty in building and sustaining one of the world’s great universities. It provides access to a comprehensive database of information concerning the thousands of faculty members who have served the University of Michigan.
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Classroom Profile
The Michigan Alumnus 99
The promotion to full Professor came to Russell A. Smith, J.D. '34, Secretary of the Law School, last July. He has been serving on the Law School faculty since 1937.
Born September 20, 1906, at Manilla, Iowa, he graduated from Washington High School at Sioux Falls, and in 1929 he received an A. B. degree from Grinnell College. During the following school year Professor Smith was an Instructor of Mathemat ics at Doane College, Crete, Nebraska, and after that year he attended grad uate school at Grinnell while serving as an assistant in mathematics.
While a law student in Ann Arbor, he served on the Board of the Law Review. He is a member of Coif, Delta Theta Phi, Phi Beta Kappa, and also belongs to the New York and Michigan bars. From the time Professor Smith completed his work at the University Law School until joining the faculty, he was an associate in the law firm of Cravath, Swaine and Moore, in New York City.
He was granted a leave of absence
from 1942 to 1945, to serve on the
legal staff of Pan-American Petroleum
Company. He served as labor counsel
for the company, and for part of this
time he acted in various capacities on
the industry side of the National War
Labor Board. He is married and has
two children.