Faculty Profile

It is not surprising that a man whose father was a lawyer, judge, and state senator, and whose mother was arrested when she was over 80 because she "forgot where she was and stepped on the gas" should possess both unusual mental acuity and a lasting love for Law. "I've always found plenty to keep me busy," says Professor Roscoe Pound, who, like many other famous men, has the ability to master more than one field of knowledge.

At the opening of the Twentieth Century Roscoe Pound was one of the nation's outstanding botanists. He is listed in "American Men of Science" as "one of the 1000 students of the natural and exact sciences in the United States whose work is most important." However, in 1901, the Law, which had been consuming more and more of his time, finally triumphed and botany was relegated to the position of a hobby. For in that year Roscoe Pound, newly appointed Commissioner of Appeals for the Supreme Court of Nebraska, was immersed in straightening out the affairs of a court which had a three years' backlog of work. During the zenith of this activity he wrote as many as 24 lengthy and complex opinions a month.

Having proved that he could take his Botany or leave it alone, Professor Pound proceeded to devote himself to the teaching of Law, an occupation which has busied him for the last 47 years, including 36 years at Harvard. Professor Pound, who resigned as Dean of the Law School in 1936, plans to retire from his University professorship at the end of this year. "I'm going to retire before people start asking me why I don't," he says.

Next year he is going to return to China to continue the work he began this summer--assisting and advising the Chinese lawyers who are compiling a National Legal Code. While he was in China Professor Pound acquired, along with a hearty respect for the ability of its jurists, such an excellent reading knowledge of Chinese that when he was unable to translate a word from that language to English, he found his Chinese friends were stumped also.

Until the time he goes back to China he will continue to work in his book crammed office on the second floor of Langdell. This office contains, in the persons of himself and his secretary, Mrs. McCarthy, who has been with him since 1916, more knowledge of the inner workings of the Harvard Law School than can be found anywhere else in the world. Here too are tangible reminders of the many honors he has received--degrees and awards from England, Italy, France, China, and other countries. On a table beind his desk stands a porcelain statue made for him in Brittany, of St. Ives, the patron saint of lawyers.

From this center of operations he sallies forth to lecture rooms, crowded with students eager to make the most of their chance to absorb some of the wisdom of the man who has been called the foremost legal philosopher in the world. The green eye shade which Professor Pound wears in the classroom has become a Harvard tradition, as have the anecdotes with which he spices his lectures.

Professor Pound is proud of the fact that he has never worn an overcoat. "Heat and cold don't bother me." Physically robust, he was able to run the mile in less than five minutes when he was over 50. When he first came to Harvard he was accustomed to take a daily run around the present site of Langdell, which was then an open plot of ground known as Holmes Field. Combining his fondness for exercise with an intense interest in American history, he spent the summers from 1912 to 1920 hiking over the battlefields of the Civil War. Carrying 35-pound knapsacks, he and a companion covered an average of 20 miles a day. For a man of his outstanding academic achievements, Professor Pound has maintained an unusual interest in sports. In fact the last thing he said as this writer was leaving his office was, "Have you heard how the Red Sox are doing today;" He didn't say how he was betting on the Series.