Emeritus Vanderbilt Law Professor Theodore (Ted) Smedley, who helped define law education at Vanderbilt and who thrust the law school onto the national scene, died of a heart attack June 15. He was 94.
Smedley joined the law school’s faculty in 1957 and retired in 1978. He continued to teach classes throughout the 1980s.
“Ted was a path-breaking scholar and a gentle and kind mentor and colleague. He was indefatigable in the law professor’s quest for equality and justice,” Nicholas S. Zeppos, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said. “His work made our society more just, and his legacy will be a reminder of our nation’s progress but also our compelling need to continue his work.”
“Ted was one of five faculty members who constituted the heart and soul of the school for a 20-year period,” Don Welch, associate dean for administration and professor of law and religion, said. “He was the prime proponent of what was called ‘the Vanderbilt method,’ the pervasive teaching of professional responsibility throughout the curriculum.”
At Vanderbilt, Smedley served as director of the Race Relations Law Reporter from 1959 to 1968 and as editor of the Race Relations Law Index from 1973 to 1974. The Reporter was established at the university in 1956 with a Ford Foundation grant to completely and objectively present the primary legal materials of the time dealing with the subject of race. It was a unique publication, printing statutes, court decisions, administrative rulings and other legal developments on the federal, state and local level. It began when there were no commercial reporting services in the field, and catapulted Vanderbilt Law School onto the national scene. At one time the Reporter had a circulation of over 6,000, second only to Harvard Law Review among legal publications.
The foundation discontinued its funding for the Reporter in 1968, but it later provided three additional years of funding for the more limited Race Relations Law Survey, which ended in 1972.
At Vanderbilt, Smedley taught security transactions, damages, civil rights law and “Profession of Law,” a couse co-taught with other faculty that addressed professional and public responsibilities.
Smedley earned his bachelor’s degree from Illinois College in 1935 and his law degree at Northwestern University in 1938. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946 in air combat intelligence.
In addition to Vanderbilt, Smedley also taught at Washington and Lee University, where he served as faculty editor of the Washington and Lee Law Review, and at the University of Wyoming and Hastings College of Law.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, June 23, at Belle Meade United Methodist Church in Nashville. Visitation with the family is at 11 a.m., with the service at 1 p.m.
Media Contact: Melanie Moran, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu