03/28/95
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558
STANFORD -- Stanford law Professor Gerald Gunther received an honorary doctorate from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh on March 20.
The degree, a doctor of laws honoris causa (LL.D. h.c.), was presented by Duquesne President John E. Murray Jr. at the conclusion of a featured lecture by Gunther.
The diploma presented to Gunther cites his "seminal contributions to constitutional jurisprudence and legal history, and [his] role as inspirational mentor to several generations of students and scholars in their fields."
Gunther, one of the nation's preeminent legal scholars, is the author of a casebook - Constitutional Law, now in its 12th edition - that has been the most widely used text in its field over the last three decades.
His 1972 "Foreword" to the Supreme Court issue of the Harvard Law Review is the most cited legal article published over the last 50 years.
Gunther recently completed Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge (Knopf, 1994), a biography of the man who was probably the most influential court of appeals judge in U.S. history. The book includes Gunther's experiences as a law clerk to Hand.
The Duquesne lecture was attended by dozens of federal judges, state supreme court justices and other leading members of the local bench and bar.
Duquesne Professor Ken Gormley, who organized the program, said that Gunther "spoke passionately about the life of Judge Learned Hand and conveyed the message that it is still possible to 'do things right' as a judge or lawyer, but it is often lonely and anguishing work."
Gunther, who was born in Germany, came to the United States in 1938 at age 11. He earned academic degrees from Brooklyn College (A.B. 1949), Columbia University (M.A. 1950) and Harvard Law School (LL.B. 1953), where he was note editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Gunther's 1953-54 clerkship with Judge Hand was followed by a 1954-55 clerkship at the U.S. Supreme Court with Chief Justice Earl Warren. Gunther served on the law faculty of Columbia University from 1956 to 1962, when he joined the Stanford faculty. He has been the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law since 1972.
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Photo available: Ann Dethlefsen (415) 723-9302
Duquesne University contact: Professor Ken Gormley (412) 396-6184
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