03 October 2016

Daniel Bernstine

Notice of the death of another of my law school professors has come my way. (An earlier post about John Kidwell appeared here. Sam Mermin passed away before my blogging started.) To the best of my recollection, Daniel Bernstine was the only African-American male on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin College of Law while I was a student.

Bernstine taught only one course that I took, Federal Courts, which dealt with the arcana of the Constitutional jurisdiction of the federal courts in the United States. Some 36 years later, I don't remember much of the class but I do remember then-professor Bernstine positively. His class-appropriate yellow tee-shirt emblazoned with an old-fashioned steam engine with the words "Erie Railroad Co." stands out among my law school memories.

Bernstine went on to become the law school's dean and held a variety of other posts over the subsequent years. He was 69 at his death, which means he was only seven years older than me. A sobering thought.

You can read more detailed accounts of Bersntine's life here, here, and here.

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