Dean James Huffman named to new endowed professorship
A new endowed professorship in honor of the late Erskine Wood, Sr., has been established in the law school, and James Huffman, dean of the law school, has been named as its first incumbent. The chair was created by a generous gift from Louise Wood, the widow of the late Erskine Wood, Sr.
"We are deeply touched by the generosity of Mrs. Wood and her desire to honor her husband with this gift to the law school. We are exceptionally proud to establish, in perpetuity, a professorship in memory of Erskine Wood, Sr., a brilliant lawyer, a great citizen, and a man whose life so intimately bound up with the history of the Pacific Northwest," says Michael Mooney, president of Lewis & Clark College.
Wood, who died in 1983 at the age of 103, was a renowned Portland admiralty lawyer and the last living person to know Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe. Wood was born in Vancouver Barracks, Washington Territory. His father was Charles Erskine Scott Wood, a U.S. Army lieutenant in the Indian wars who befriended Chief Joseph after transcribing his surrender speech in 1877. At the age of 12, Erskine Wood lived with Chief Joseph for six months and, at the age of 14, he returned to participate in the Nez Perce fall hunt.
Wood graduated from Harvard University in 1901 and from the University of Oregon Law School in 1912. He was the senior partner in the firm of Wood, Tatum, Mosser, Brooke & Holden, and many believe he was one of the greatest admiralty lawyers in the United States.
"Mrs. Wood requested that the appointee to the chair be an individua1 committed to the established traditions of the American legal and constitutiona1 system. She joins our faculty in endorsing the appointment of Jim Huffman, an expert in constitutional law, jurisprudence and natural resources law to the chair," says Mooney.
Huffman will now have the title of the Erskine Wood, Sr., Professor of Law. This is the law school’s third endowed professorship. Ed Brunet was inaugurated as the Henry J. Casey Professor of Law in 1994, and Doug Newell was inaugurated as the Edmund O. Belsheim Professor of Law in 1994.
Huffman joined the law school faculty in 1973 and was appointed dean in 1994. Huffman graduated from Montana State University, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and the University of Chicago Law School. He has been a visiting professor at Auckland University in New Zealand, the University of Oregon, the University of Athens in Greece and Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. He is a fellow at the Institute for Human Studies and a Distinguished Bradley Scholar at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Huffman serves on the boards of the American Judicature Society, the American Law Deans Association, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, the Classroom Law Project and the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation.
He is a member of the Montana Bar Association and is admitted to practice before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is the author of more than 100 articles and chapters on a wide array of legal topics.
"Having known Mrs. Wood over the past several years and hearing her recollections of her late husband, I have a tremendous appreciation of the contributions of Erskine Wood, Sr., to the law and to the history of the Northwest. To be honored with the Erskine Wood, Sr., Professorship in Law is indeed overwhelming, and I’m tremendously grateful to Louise Wood for making possible this honor," says Huffman.
Huffman will be inaugurated as the Erskine Wood, Sr., Professor of Law on Tuesday, Nov. 27. He will present a public lecture titled "Liberty, Community and the Constitution: Balancing Tests and the Rise of Judicial Activism" at 7 p.m. in Agnes Flanagan Chapel. |
