Albany Law and World War II

By Lisa Suto

When America has gone to war, Albany Law School has answered the call.

Impact Felt on Campus

The primary effect of World War II was the shrinking of the student body. According to Albany Law School: A Tradition of Change, the graduating class of 1943 was 23 students—the same number that attended the law school’s very first lecture in 1851. How-ever, Union University Chancellor Dixon Ryan Fox praised the law school, “Albany Law School will not be a casualty of the war. It must be kept in operation because it is a sign of the liberties we are defending.”
 After the war, the G.I. Bill helped double enrollment. The G.I. Bill was coauthored by Bernard W. Kearney, Class of 1914, who was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. One veteran that took advantage of the bill was Francis Anderson ’47. During World War II he earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He returned to the school in 1958 as a faculty member. He retired in 1980, but continued to teach part-time and pro bono.
 Beyond the student body, the effects of the conflict manifested in no Verdict year-books being published from 1943-1951.

Making Do

Hon. Merle N. Fogg ’45 discussed his war experience in, “Fifty Years ago at Albany Law School” published in a prior issue of the Albany Law School magazine. There were only 14 students when Fogg started his first semester. Classes were held 12 months a year with no break according to Fogg.
Fogg recounted how he ran a taxi service  transporting two law students and two Saint Rose students to qualify to get a C-ration for gas so he could commute every week from Schenectady to Albany. He charged the students $5 per week.

Justice Jackson

On June 5, 1941, U.S. Attorney General Robert H. Jackson, Class of 1912, gave the Commencement speech. Jackson sensed that America would be drawn into the war as he spoke about freedom, democracy, and justice. Six months later, the United States did, of course, enter the war.
 In Jackson’s speech two ideas stand out; “The fact that the reconstruction of a peace-time society, both within our country and the world, will be the test and the opportunity of the legal profession.” And his final words that summer afternoon, “May you never falter in the faith that a better world order can be established and the philosophy of the law can lead the way.”
 Jackson was appointed to the United States  Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and confirmed on July 11, 1941.
 After the war, President Harry S. Truman appointed Jackson as the U.S. Chief Counsel  for the Prosecution of Nazi criminals—The Nuremburg Trials.

Opportunity for Women

World War II provided unexpected opportunities for women at Albany Law. During the war, they were admitted after being  excluded in 1929.
 Julia May Perkins and Florence Mary Cardinal (Schaffer) graduated in 1945. Ruth Elizabeth Bennett, Katherine Jane O’Brien, Elizabeth Helene Simpson,  Dorothy Eleanor Dake, Athena Caperonis Kouray, and Mary Elizabeth Cox graduated in 1946.

Unfortunately, women were excluded once again after the G.I. Bill. But women were hired at the law school for the first time.

Katharine Jones Strough was hired as a secretary and promoted to registrar in 1945 by Dean Andrew Clements. Mary Elizabeth Cox ’46 was the first librarian and female  faculty member.