University of California: In Memoriam, September 1978
David William Louisell, Law: Berkeley
| 1913-1977 | |
| Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt Professor |
David W. Louisell was born in Duluth, Minnesota on December 2, 1913. He received both his undergraduate and law school education at the University of Minnesota. After graduating in 1938, he was called to the bar of his native state in 1938 of New York in 1940, and of the District of Columbia and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1946. He practiced in New York City during 1938-41 and in Washington, D.C. during 1941-42 and 1946-50, a period interrupted by service with the U.S. Navy Reserves during World War II, 1942-45.
David entered upon his scholarly career by accepting a call from his alma mater as professor of law in 1950, and it was from there that he joined the Boalt faculty in 1956, following Dean W.L. Prosser's and Professor S.A. Riesenfeld's earlier migration. Eventually, upon Prosser's retirement in 1964, David was to become his successor as Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt Professor of Law.
David's professional reputation was based principally on his teaching and writing in the field of civil procedure and evidence. Amidst a continuous stream of articles in numerous law reviews, he authored or co-authored three successive editions of Pleading and Procedure, two editions of Cases and Materials on Evidence, two editions of Modern California Discovery, three editions of Jurisdiction in a Nutshell, and just lived to see the publication of the first volume of a projected treatise on Federal Evidence. These achievements received public recognition by his appointment to the Advisory Committee on Rules of Civil Procedure, Judicial Conference of the U.S., 1960-70.
A second theme that increasingly absorbed David's interest related to the legal and ethical aspects of biological problems, an interest that reflected at once his intense humanity and his involvement in the religious response to the challenges of modern science. Initially, this interest focused on medical malpractice, culminating in his Trial of Medical Malpractice Cases (revised as Medical Malpractice) and The Parenchyma of Law. Later, it broadened into the wider area of legal-biological problems, such as Organ Transplantation, and the unstinted arduous
David's spirit was dominated by a profound devotion to his church. From it he drew strength of character, an unswerving conviction in a principled and ordained approach to the problems of life, and a conscience to put himself unremittingly in the service of its causes. For his countless efforts in his sphere, he was decorated by Pope Paul VI with a Knighthood of St. Gregory. His uncompromising ethic was in later years increasingly put under siege by the radicalism of the young, which to him often appeared to threaten cherished values and institutions. This saddened but never daunted him in his own sense of right and justice. He did not relish but neither did he shun the isolation destined for campus conservatives during the turmoil of Free Speech and Vietnam.
David's devotion to the problems of church and state, of abortion and other humanistic causes, exposed him to constant demand as a public speaker, legal advocate, and counselor. These calls on his time and energy he rarely felt able to turn down, despite exigent commitments to teaching and research. He was an outstanding and inspiring classroom teacher of the grand style, peppering his lessons of legal analysis with memorable aphorism and towering voice. Amidst many outside engagements, he accepted several important and distinguished visiting professorial appointments in recent years (Minnesota, 1971-72; Virginia, 1975-76). He was a splendid colleague, ever ready to dispense counsel and friendship. Perhaps most admirable of all was his devotion to his wife, which sorely taxed his resources in the last year of his life during her terminal illness and must have contributed to his own untimely death.
Courtesy of University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/info
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb4q2nb2nd&brand=calisphere
Title: 1978, University of California: In Memoriam
By: University of California (System) Academic Senate, Author
Date: September 1978
Contributing Institution: University Archives, The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/info
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