Chafee, 70, Plans To Retire

Zechariah Chafee, Jr., University Professor and one of the nation's leading authorities on civil rights, celebrates a quiet 70th birthday today--his last, he says, as an active teacher. Chafee will retire at the end of this year after teaching at Harvard steadily since 1916.

"When I retire, I mean to retire," Chafee laughingly says. With Mrs. Chafee, he plans to travel, both in Europe and America. He is presently at work on bringing up to date some of his speeches and writings for his next book, "The Blessings of Liberty.

"My books and students are what have counted most," Chafee says as he looks back over 40 years of teaching and writing. The 1907 Brown graduate finished Harvard Law School in 1913, and became assistant professor of Law in 1916, full professor in 1919, Langdell Professor of Law in 1938, and University Professor in 1950.

Chafee notes the tremendous changes that have occurred since he first began teaching. "Legal knowledge has grown so much that I probably know a smaller percentage of existing law now than I did then," he said. "We didn't even have a federal income tax at that time."