Indiana Law Review Volume 28 1995 Number 2 ARTICLES Fragments From Our Fleece: Vignettes From 100 Years in a Great Law School William F. Harvey* "The Chief glory of every people arises from its authors," Dr. Samuel Johnson said. The chief glory of every law school arises from its graduates, its students, and its faculty. The history of the Indiana Law School, now the Indiana University School of Law at Indianapolis, is remarkable and glorious. For example, this Law School is the only law school in the Midwest which admitted women and ethnic minorities prior to 1900. This history, however, is almost unknown to the public, to historians, to Indiana University, and to Law School graduates of the past fifty years. It is not that records do not exist or that all graduates are gone. It is, perhaps, that the Indiana Law School's history was absorbed after 1944 when Indiana University acquired the school and placed it under the administrative jurisdiction of its Law School in Bloomington, Indiana (where it remained until 1969). From that point its identity, public image and reputation were not separate from the larger University and its public representations. The matriculating student or the graduate naturally and correctly identified with the degree which was pursued, or which was awarded at graduation. In their minds and in the minds of the faculty, who eventually replaced all of the Indiana Law School faculty who remained after the 1 944 transition, the Law School was Indiana University and the University was the Law School. Its earlier history did not clearly appear in their recollection; the earlier faculty were not known; the earlier Law School and its administration disappeared. As a result, an active memory of the Law School's Great Dean in its first one hundred years was lost, too. He was Dean James A. Rohbach, the Dean for twenty-nine years and the person, by all accounts, who "saved and created" the Law School in its first fifty years. Dean Rohbach had an outstanding, practicing-attorney faculty under him. Hopefully, in these pages, some of their major educational work will be restored. Extensive interviews were conducted with four alumni of the law school 1 along with other research in developing the vignettes that follow. The alumni and faculty, who are discussed in these vignettes, span the entire one hundred years of the Law School's history. They provide the reader with "slices in time" and they will, I hope, create an interest about many other graduates of the Law School and their distinguished careers. * Carl M. Gray Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law—Indianapolis. 1. These interviews were with William Pearcy, Class of 1926; James V. Donadio, Class of 1928; Richard H. Oberreich, Class of 1933; and Dr. John Morton-Finney, Class of 1944. The transcripts of these interviews can be obtained from the Indiana University—Indianapolis Archives, the Law School Library, or from the author. The interviews of William Pearcy and Dr. John Morton-Finney are available on videotape. Showing is restricted to the Law School and its facilities. 144 INDIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 28:143 The selection of persons in this introduction to one hundred years is limited by space available in this publication. There are so many, many more of remarkable interest and professional greatness. Some are: U.S. Senator John W. Kern, an early faculty member of a school which became the Indiana Law School, and the Democratic Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate as America entered World War I, and his son, Judge John W. Kern, Jr., who was an outstanding faculty member and teacher; Judge Frank Richmond, a faculty member who served the United States at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946; Mr. Floyd Mattice, a distinguished counsel for the defendants at the War Crimes Trial in Tokyo, Japan in 1946; Professor John S. Grimes, a remarkable teacher, author, and faculty member between 1945 and 1977; Judge Daniel A. Manion, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; Judge Stanley B. Miller, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana and Judge on the Indiana Court of Appeals, and his father before him, Mr. William B. Miller, and Judge Miller's son after him, Judge Gary L. Miller; Chief Judge William E. Steckler, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana; Judge Cale J. Holder, United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana; Mr. John J. Dillon, Indiana Attorney General; Ms. Virginia D. McCarty, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana; Ms. Kathleen Kimberly Noland, distinguished in national and international finance and the financial markets; Ms. Deborah Jean Daniels, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana; Dr. Edward B. McLean, a distinguished professor at Wabash College, and Edgar D. Whitcomb, an American hero who confronted the Japanese Imperial Army at Bataan and Corregidor in 1942, Law School Class of 1950, Governor of Indiana, 1969-73. The list could continue, it seems, indefinitely. The thoughts and experiences of the fourteen persons who appear below, along with the First Annual Commencement in 1895, provide either substantial information or brief revelations about the Indiana Law School in the time they were here. Their lives and the information they provide about the Indiana Law School allow us to look, if only for a moment, into parts of one hundred years of legal education. They tell us about their lives and times. They remind us that their past is the prologue to our present. "Vignettes" 1 Vice President Charles Warren Fairbanks, Law School Faculty Member, 1 893-1 896. 2. Mr. William Jennings Bryan Addresses the Law School, February 17, 1908. 3. U.S. Senator Frederick Van Nuys, Class of 1900. 4. U.S. Senator Arthur R. Robinson, Class of 1910. 5. Mr. William Pearcy, Class of 1926. 6. Mr. James V. Donadio, Class of 1928. 7. Mr. Richard H. Oberreich, Class of 1933. 8. Dr. John Morton-Finney, Class of 1944. 9. Chief Justice Richard M. Givan, Class of 1 95 1 10. Judge Robert H. Staton, Class of 1955. 1 1 Congressman Andrew Jacobs, Jr., Class of 1958. 12. U.S. Senator Daniel R. Coats, Class of 1971. 1 3 Marilyn Tucker Quayle, Class of 1 974. 14. Vice President Dan Quayle, Class of 1974. 1 995] VIGNETTES FROM ONE HUNDRED YEARS 1 45 15. First Annual Commencement of The Indiana Law School, Wednesday Evening, May Twenty-ninth, Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-Five, (May 29, 1895), Plymouth Church, Indianapolis, Indiana. Charles Warren Fairbanks Indiana Law School Faculty Member 1893-1896 Vice President of the United States 1905-1909 United States Senator 1897-1904 Charles Warren Fairbanks was born in 1 852 in a small log house on an Ohio farm near Unionville, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1872 and was admitted to the Bar of Ohio in 1874. He was a founding faculty member of the Indiana Law School when the School opened for classes in 1 894 and he remained on the faculty until 1896. Mr. Fairbanks then served as a U.S. Senator from 1897 until 1904. In 1900, he declined the nomination of Vice President of the United States by the Republican party, principally because of his desire to be nominated President. Instead, Theodore Roosevelt accepted that nomination and became the President of the United States upon the assassination of President William McKinley. In their years together in Indianapolis, Vice President and Mrs. Fairbanks hosted many distinguished guests. Among them were Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Charles Evans Hughes, French General Joffre, the Premier of France, Rene Vivani, French General Foch, Booth Tarkington, James Whitcomb Riley, John Worth Kurn and Albert J. Beveridge. Charles Warren Fairbanks again ran for Vice President of the United States as the running mate of Charles Evans Hughes in 1916. The Hughes-Fairbanks ticket lost to Woodrow Wilson after many newspapers had already printed headlines announcing a Hughes-Fairbanks victory. Mr. Fairbanks died in Indianapolis in 1918. William Jennings Bryan Speaks at the Indiana Law School The publication "STARE DECISIS" was published by the Indiana Law School of the University of Indianapolis. The following article is reprinted verbatim from the 1908 edition ofthe publication. A. Mr. Bryan 's Visit to the Law School February 17, 1908, was a day that will long be remembered by the students of the Indiana Law School. For two days Mr. Bryan had been an honored visitor of the city of Indianapolis and, without the knowledge of the majority of the students, arrangements had been made for him to address the school at noon of the final day of his visit. At the close of the eleven o'clock lecture the announcement that Mr. Bryan would address the school was made and immediately law and law books were forgotten in the rush to doors and windows to watch for the approach of the famed orator. At about ten minutes after twelve he arrived and was escorted to the lecture room by a committee of students. The dean introduced Mr. Bryan as "the world's greatest and most distinguished private citizen." 146 INDIANA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 28: 143 Mr. Bryan spoke for about ten minutes and the speech, like the speaker, was received with hearty applause. The address, which related to the moral duties of a lawyer, will, in after years, be remembered by the students of the Indiana Law School as one of the greatest of their many inspirations to uphold the honor and dignity of their chosen profession. B. W.J. Bryan 's Speech Before the Students Of the Indiana Law School Mr.