A memorial service for Harold Shepherd, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law Emeritus, who died on October 2 was held at Memorial Church on October 22. Rab Minto officiated and Dean Samuel D. Thurman of the University of Utah College of Law, formerly of the Stanford Law faculty, delivered the tribute, an edited version of which appears below. Contributions to the Law Library Fund have been received in tribute to Professor Shepherd. Proceeds will be u~ed to purchase books which will bear a special bookplate honoring Professor Shepherd. Anyone wishing to so designate a gift may send it to the School’s Librarian, J. Myron Jacobstein, Stanford Law School, Stanford, California 94305.

Those of us fortunate enough to have known Harold Shepherd as a colleague and as a friend remember well the breadth of his knowledge and the sincerity of his views on subjects ranging from art to business to politics to sports, from education to world affairs to philosophy to science. He was a delightful conversationalist. His counsel was often sought and his opinions were highly respected. He remained one of the warmest and friendliest of men with the ability to make and retain friends wherever he journeyed.

Harold was very proud of his Mormon heritage. His grandparents came to this country from England and Scotland and settled in a remote Idaho mountain area. Under conditions of severe hardship they managed to make a good life for their children and grandchildren. On a recent trip to England, Harold and Marian enjoyed their stay in the small village of Brockenhurst, near the New Forest, where Harold’s father was born. In Scotland he visited the little rural town of Lanark, the birthplace of his grandfather.

At the age of 18 Harold left Idaho for the outside world, enrolling as a freshman at Stanford. He was a tall, handsome young man who had excelled in all he had attempted up to that time in rural Idaho and was destined to do so thereafter in the large world. In 1919 he graduated from Stanford after election to Phi Beta Kappa and time out for military service.

His record as a law student at Stanford could hardly be surpassed. I recall coming upon his grade sheet some time back and was startled to find that one-half of his grades were A’s; the balance were A plusses! As all of us here today are aware, this is an uncommon achievement, probably not duplicated before or since. Prior to graduation from Law School, Harold had married Eleanor Stahman, this marriage ending with Eleanor’s death in 1958.

Upon graduation Harold was much in demand as a law teacher although he and Judge Gilbert Jertberg, a close friend during their undergraduate and law school days and thereafter, had talked seriously of practicing law together. Harold spent his first year after graduation as dean of the University of Wyoming Law School at the age of 25, thus beginning a career of 40 years of teaching.

Stanford recalled him in 1923 and for the next seven years he taught with Marion Kirkwood, George Osborne, Bill Owens, Clark Whittier, Arthur Cathcart, Chester Vernier, Jim Brenner, Walter Bingham, Harry Rathbun, Stanley Morrison, and Lowell Turrentine, a great law faculty. John Hurlbut was a student of Harold’s during that period.

For the next two years he was on the faculty of the University of Chicago before becoming dean of the University of Washington Law School at the age of 34. Harold left Washington after five years 3 to become the Wald Professor of Contracts at Cincinnati and also taught at Columbia and Minnesota during the years just before World War II. When war broke out he had joined the faculty of Duke Law School.

Within a few months after Pearl Harbor, Harold was serving with the Legal Division of the Ordnance Department of the Army. By V-J day he had become its chief and at the conclusion of the war was awarded the Legion of Merit by Lt. General Campbell, chief of Ordnance. The citation referred to his outstanding service in the formulation of new and effective procedures in the settlement of terminated war contracts.

One has to know more than this to appreciate the full significance of Harold’s wartime contributions. His first assignment was that of effecting a speedy termination of two contracts with a diesel engine company, totalling $8,000,000. Harold devised a plan of “negotiated settlement” which reduced technical auditing and accounting to a minimum consistent with the protection of the Government interest. Later Congress passed the Contract Settlement Act which adopted these same procedures. More than 100,000 contracts were settled under this Act involving $23 billion. No one can say how much money and, more important, how many lives were saved by this expediting of procedures inspired by the man we honor this afternoon.

After the war Harold returned to Duke as its dean. In 1949 we succeeded in convincing Harold that he should return to this campus where he taught for the next 12 years. He brought back to Stanford students, and those of us fortunate enough to be his colleagues, the wealth of experience he had gained elsewhere.

In Harold’s first class after returning to Stanford the brightest student was probably William Rehnquist, nominated last evening by the President as associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Rehnquist also became a good friend of Harold who would have been thrilled, I am sure, at this nomination. Rehnquist graduated Number One in his class and became clerk to Mr. Justice Jackson. If confirmed he will become Stanford’s first Supreme Court justice, and the second law clerk to become a member of the Court, following in the footsteps of Justice White.

Harold often commented on the great satisfaction he derived from knowing the thousands of students who had studied under him. He could point with pride to many former students at Stanford such as Senator Church from his home state of Idaho and Representative McCloskey, both leaders in Congress, John Ehrlichman in the White House, and now a likely addition to the third branch of government.

Harold is primarily known for his work in the field of contracts and he will always be remembered by law students, particularly first year, as one of their most stimulating teachers. Year after year they spontaneously testified to this effect. His standards were high whether set for himself or for his students. No grade in Law School was more highly prized than an “A” in one of his courses. To him slipshod thinking was anathema and it was sheer delight to participate in the logical and orderly solution of a legal problem in his classroom.

Important as the classroom was to Harold Shepherd, his contributions to legal scholarship were also significant. He was the author of five books, one of which became widely adopted in law school contract classes throughout the country. He also wrote in the fields of criminal law, legal education, and bar admissions.

Harold was deeply interested in putting the study of law as an institution back into undergraduate curricula. He was fully cognizant of the part that law plays in our lives and was an ardent advocate of the teaching of law as an institution along with the family and religion. He and Byron Sher produced a book, “Law in Society,” designed for use in undergraduate teaching as an integral part of a liberal arts curriculum.

Honors, in addition to those of an academic nature already recited, came to Harold Shepherd throughout his brilliant career. He 4 served as president of the Association of American Law Schools, was national president of the Order of the Coif, a member of the American Bar Association Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, a member of the Editonal Board of the Foundation Press University Casebook Series, was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Tulane University, and was the holder of the William Nelson Cromwell Professorship, the first endowed chair at the Stanford Law School. It had been previously occupied by two of Stanford’s greats, Marion Kirkwood and George Osborne, and its occupant today is a worthy successor, Carl Spaeth.

The last several years were satisfying and rewarding for Harold and Marian. Harold enjoyed gardening and the society of those who worked the soil, reminiscent no doubt of his early years in Idaho. One could always find vegetables, fruits, berries, and flowers in the Shepherds’ yard and they were generously given to friends and neighbors. Long before retirement Harold became an expert wood worker, deriving great pleasure from this hobby. Emy and I recall the thrill experienced by our daughters upon receiving as a gift one of Harold’s hand-made doll houses, completely equipped with furniture scaled to size.

He was an omniverous reader of Western Americana and enjoyed studying and collecting books and journeys of early travel in the West. He and Marian retraced the route of Lewis and Clark from the Missouri headwaters to the Pacific, locating the various camp sites. He came from a musical family and after retirement began organ lessons from which he derived much satisfaction.

But despite these wide ranging interests and his experience in all parts of the nation it might be said that Harold Shepherd never really left Stanford after his arrival as a freshman in 1915. Just one year ago he wrote these words about John Hurlbut in the Stanford Law Review: “We shared a common love for Stanford, for its Law School, and for the men we had known as teachers and colleagues.”

His interest in and his love of the School continued until the date of his death. Officially he retired in 1962 and the December issue of the Stanford Law Review of that year was dedicated to him. It contained an eloquent tribute from his close and long-time friend, Judge Jertberg. John Hurlbut, a former student, colleague and friend of Harold, was the speaker at a retirement dinner ·for Harold. Following a recital of an impressive list of accomplishments John concluded with these words: “Finally (I record it last but put it at the top of the list) he is a superb teacher who has always believed that a law school exists for the students and not for the teacher, that the classroom is an opportunity for him as well as for the student and that the function of a teacher is to teach.”

Marian has received many letters since Harold’s death. Before concluding I would like to read from one sent this morning by the President of the United States:

“I will be there in spirit as the many friends and admirers of your distinguished husband pay tribute to the lasting achievements of his full and rewarding career. Mrs. Nixon joins me in expressing our deepest sympathy. We hope that you will be comforted by the knowledge that his contributions to legal education have added such a proud and constructive chapter to the history of jurisprudence in America.

“He will be affectionately remembered by all of us whose lives he touched. For me’ personally, his generous friendship will remain a cherished memory, and his inspiring service to our country has made me richer for our association. May you draw courage in the years ahead from the strength of your husband’s selfless commitment to the future of our country, and may God bless you always.”

It has been an honor for me to dedicate these services to a gifted teacher, a distinguished scholar, a loyal friend, a beloved colleague, a devoted husband, and one of the kindest of men-Harold Shepherd.