The Stanford Law Class of 1939 is the first class to have celebrated its twenty-fifth reunion at the Law School. The two-day occasion was, by the judgment of all, a success.

At the time of graduation in 1939, the class had forty-three members. Of the forty members living at the time of the Class’s twenty-fifth reunion, twenty-six, or 65 percent, returned to the campus for the affair. Also attending were five members of the Class of 1940 who, as enrollees in the four-year course of study available at the time, took the majority of their classes with the ’39 students. Most of the returning alumni were accompanied by their wives.

Edward L. Butterworth of Los Angeles was chairman of the 1939 Reunion Committee. The other members were Albert L. Burford, Jr., Joseph Gill, and George H. Whitney, from Los Angeles; and Perry Moerdyke and Andrew Spears from Palo Alto.

On Friday the Class held a luncheon on campus at Bowman Alumni House honoring Dean Emeritus Marion R. Kirkwood. At the luncheon the Class presented to the Law School a portrait of Dean Kirkwood painted by Daniel Mendelowitz, professor of art and education at Stanford. Samuel D. Thurman ’39, dean of the University of Utah College of Law, made the presentation of the portrait, with a review of Dean Kirkwood’s years of service to the School from his appointment to the faculty in 1912 to his retirement from the deanship in 1945. Dean Kirkwood was on hand for the presentation and spoke in response. Professors Emeriti Joseph Bingham, George Osborne, and William Owens were on hand, as were Mrs. Kirkwood, Mrs. Owens, and Mrs. James Brenner. Robert Blewett served as toastmaster.

the reunion weekend included many other events. On campus, the returning class members were conducted through and attended classes in the Law School, heard a review of, and participated in a question period about the School’s current educational programs, and were guests at a reception at the home of Dean and Mrs. Manning. On Friday evening there was a Class dinner and dance, and on Saturday the group attended the Big Game.

Thirty-seven ’39ers sent in answers to a questionnaire circulated by the Reunion Committee. The returns showed that eighteen members of the class were in private practice, five were attorneys with corporations, five were employed by government, six were business executives, and one was a colonel in the Air Force. One member of the Class was on the bench, Judge James C. Toothaker, of the Appellate Department of the Superior Court of San Diego County, and one was in academic law, Dean Thurman.

At the time the questionnaire was sent out, all but four members of the Class lived in California. Twenty-two of the men had served in the armed services during World War II. Ten children of Class members were attending Stanford.

One question on the Class questionnaire was: “What do you remember most about our law school days?” One member of the Class answered, “The warm comradeship of dedicated men all bent on attaining the same goal.” The Class’s twenty-fifth reunion was evidence that that comradeship is still active.

The 1939 twenty-fifth reunion has led alumni of other Law School classes to inquire about the possibility of their holding reunions at the School. The School warmly welcomes the suggestion.

Assistant Dean Keller and the rest of the School staff stand ready to assist in making arrangements. The imprint of Dean Emeritus Marion Rice Kirkwood is everywhere evident at the Stanford School of Law. His portrait hangs in the reception room of the School, a gift of the Class of 1939 presented at their recent twenty-fifth reunion. The School’s moot court competition, an endowed professorship, and the main desk in the Library all honor his name.

A year after his graduation from the Law School in 1911, Marion Kirkwood was appointed by President David Starr Jordan to the law 12 faculty. From 1923 to 1945 he served as dean. Retiring from the faculty in 1952, he continued until last year to give an annual series of lectures on water law. An authority on the law of property, he has been a leader in legal, academic, and civic circles throughout his career. The law, and the School to which he has devoted so much of his energies over a span of fifty-eight years, continue to be his abiding interests.

Today, Dean Kirkwood wears his years and honors with dignity, grace, and vitality. An active man, who reads extensively and gardens, Dean Kirkwood enjoys visiting with former students who come by the School.

Dean and Mrs. Kirkwood continue to live at 249 Lowell Avenue in Palo Alto, and frequently visit their two sons and their families in Santa Monica.

These days, he may be found every morning in the Law School office, often with his colleague of many years, Professor Emeritus Lowell Turrentine.