08/22/94
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558
STANFORD -- Two Stanford University School of Law professors are among three nationwide who are the first recipients of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation's Clyde O. Martz Teaching Award, the foundation announced Friday, Aug. 19.
The recipients are the late Charles J. Meyers and Howard R. Williams of the Stanford School of Law, and Richard C. Maxwell of the Duke University School of Law.
The award was in recognition of their landmark book, Cases on Oil and Gas Law (originally published in 1956 and now in its sixth edition), their abilities as teachers of oil and gas law, and their accomplishments and contributions over the years to the field of oil and gas law.
Each of the three receives a $1,000 award and an additional grant for future research.
Howard R. Williams is a professor emeritus of law. He was the first holder of Stanford's Robert E. Paradise Professorship of Natural Resources Law, and before that was the first holder of the Stella W. and Ira S. Lillick Professorship in Law.
Williams was born in Indiana and educated in Missouri, earning his bachelor's degree at Washington University in St. Louis. He studied law at Columbia University, where he was a member of the law review. During World War II, he saw active duty as a member of the Army field artillery.
Williams joined the law faculty of the University of Texas in 1946, serving for a time as acting dean. He was named to the Columbia Law School faculty in 1951 and held its Dwight Professorship from 1959 until his departure for Stanford in 1963.
Williams has written several books besides the coauthored casebook cited by the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation in making its award. Williams and Meyers also collaborated on Oil and Gas Law (8 volumes, 1959-64) and Manual of Oil and Gas Terms, the ninth edition of which will be published in October.
Formally retired in 1985, Williams continues researching and writing in his field of oil and gas law.
Charles J. Meyers was the dean of Stanford Law School from 1976 to 1981 and a member of the faculty from 1962 until 1981. He was the first to hold the title of Richard E. Lang Professor and Dean of the School of Law.
A noted legal scholar and educator, Meyers served in 1975-76 as president of the Association of American Law Schools.
Meyers taught at the University of Texas, the University of Minnesota and Columbia before joining the Stanford law faculty in 1962. When chosen dean in 1976, he was the school's Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law. He was also at various times a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, Cornell University, the University of Utah and the University of Chile in Santiago.
Meyers left academia in 1981 for private practice as a partner in the Denver office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. In 1982, during President Reagan's first term, he was appointed to the federal Intelligence Oversight Board and served as its president. Meyers died in 1988 at the age of 62. His share of the award goes to his widow, Pamela Adams Meyers.
The Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation is an educational, non-profit organization. It runs an annual institute for attorneys and others interested in natural resources law, as well as special institutes on particular aspects of the field. The current Stanford representative on the foundation's board is Barton H. Thompson Jr., a professor at Stanford Law School and head of its program in environmental and natural resources law.
The new award is named for Clyde O. Martz, a founder and first executive secretary of the foundation, a long-time professor at the University of Colorado Law School and an active practitioner of natural resources law.
Richard C. Maxwell, the third co-recipient of the inaugural Martz Award, taught at the University of Texas, UCLA (where he served as dean), Columbia University and Duke University. He currently holds the Duke title of Harry R. Chadwick Sr. Professor Emeritus. In addition to participation as coauthor of the casebook cited by the foundation, he has written numerous articles and books on property and oil and gas law.
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EDITORS: The Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation also has issued a news release on this subject.
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