Death of Henry Zapruder

I am sorry to bring you the new of the death of Henry Zapruder, a prominent tax lawyer at Baker & Hostetler in Washington D.C., at age 67.  From the Washington Post's obituary:

Henry G. Zapruder, 67, a prominent Washington tax lawyer who was a key adviser for a program that resulted in more than $1 billion for legal fees for impoverished clients, died of brain cancer Jan. 24 at his home in Chevy Chase. Mr. Zapruder, a partner in the Baker & Hostetler law firm, was repeatedly named by his peers to the "Best Lawyers in America" publication, most recently in September. He was known as "a man with a golden tongue," colleague Roger Pies said, for his ability to synthesize and communicate tax policies and legal issues. But he was most proud of his part in establishing what is now the Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA).

Mr. Zapruder was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in Dallas. His late father, Abraham Zapruder, a dressmaker, made the famous film of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Since the family owned the film, it controlled its use, which Mr. Zapruder found to be a burden, Pies said. The family stored the film at the National Archives and allowed scholars to use copies of the film for free and educators to use it for a nominal cost, but managing the use was costly. In 1999, after years of lawsuits and negotiation, the federal government bought the film for $16 million.

(Hat Tip:  Law Blog.)

Obituary of Edwin S. Cohen

Last Friday, we brought you the news of the death of Edwin S. Cohen, Undersecretary of the Treasury in the Nixon Administration and longtime tax professor at Virginia, at age 91.  His obituary appears in yesterday's Washington Post and today's New York Times. 

    

Death of Edwin S. Cohen

I am sorry to bring you the news of the death of Edwin S. Cohen, Undersecretary of the Treasury in the Nixon Administration and longtime tax professor at Virginia, at age 91.  I will share further details as they become available.  In the meantime, here is a biography of Eddie from the Virginia web site:

Edwin S. Cohen was born in Richmond, Virginia, on September 27th, 1914. He grew up in that city and at age fifteen entered the University of Richmond. Three years later he entered law school at the University of Virginia where he was an excellent student and served on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review. He received his law degree in 1936 before his twenty-first birthday.

After law school he went to New York and worked from 1936 to 1949 as an associate with Sullivan & Cromwell. There he began to specialize in taxation and investment matters and afterwards gave lectures on the subjects. In 1949 he formed the firm Root, Barrett, Cohen, Knapp and Smith with some of his former law classmates and continued doing tax work for the mutual fund industry. He remained with that practice until 1965.

Cohen had always been interested in teaching, and in 1963, Dean Hardy Dillard offered him the opportunity to teach law at his alma mater. For two terms he commuted from New York City to Charlottesville twice a month to teach a tax course. After the second course he was offered a visiting professorship, and a year later, an appointment to the faculty. In 1968 he was named to the Joseph M. Hartfield Chair.

In 1969 the Nixon administration designated him Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy to work with Secretary of Treasury David M. Kennedy and Under Secretary Charles E. Walker. In 1972 he was appointed Under Secretary of the Treasury and served in that position until his resignation in 1973.

After his stint in the Treasury Department Cohen resumed teaching at Virginia and practicing law with Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. Later he became partner and senior counselor at the firm until his retirement in 1986.

Cohen served on numerous committees, task forces, councils, and clubs throughout his career. From the early 1950s he acted as consultant in various tax matters for the American Law Institute. In 1956 he became part of a seven-member advisory group for the House Ways and Means Committee to consider the revision of the corporate tax rules in the federal tax law. He drafted a revised statute and a report explaining the group's recommendations for corporations, partnerships, estates, trusts and tax administration.

As a young tax lawyer in New York he was part of the Tax Forum, a group of junior tax lawyers that presented papers on tax subjects once a month. Later as a senior lawyer, he was a member of the Tax Club. His participation in the work of the ABA included membership in the Section of Taxation of which he became chairman in 1956 and member of the governing council in 1958. In the 1960s he served on a number of federal advisory groups or task forces: in 1965, President's Johnson Task Force to Improve the World-Wide Competitive Effectiveness of American Business; in 1967, the advisory group for the Commissioner of Internal Revenue; and in 1968, the Task Force on Federal Tax Policy to make recommendations to President-elect Nixon. Between 1968-1971 he worked with the legislators of Virginia, first as a counselor for the Virginia Income Tax Commission, and later as a member of the Virginia Income Tax Conformity Study Commission. In addition Cohen was a member of the American College Tax Counsel, American Judicature Society, D.C. Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, Order of the Coif, Raven Society, Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Delta Epsilon, Phi Epsilon Pi, among many others.

For Eddie's Covington & Burling biography, see here.

As many readers of this blog know, Eddie published an autobiography, A Lawyer's Life: Deep in the Heart of Taxes (Tax Analysts, 1994).  Michael Graetz closed his review of Eddie's book this way:

Ed Cohen's passions, his energy, his courage, and his sense of humor -- all of which are amply demonstrated in this book -- should, as he intends, arouse others to accept similar challenges, to worry less about security, less about the Volvo payments, and instead to take a few chances. Like his career itself, Ed Cohen's optimism should serve to inspire the current generation to engage their energies in pursuit of a satisfying personal and professional life. I hope it will also serve to encourage people in positions of power at law firms and on law faculties to strive to ensure that the kind of rewarding multidimensional career that Ed Cohen has enjoyed so much remains possible for the generations of lawyers that follow.

I recommend wholeheartedly the marvelous stories that await you in Ed Cohen's autobiography. Jack Nolan puts it exactly right in his foreword to Cohen's book when he says:

This is a book that, at the very least, every lawyer, young and old, should read for inspiration. Here is a man, small in stature, who overcame difficult hurdles in his early life, who was determined, with matriarchal encouragement, to excel academically, who entered college at age 15, who became editor- in-chief of the university newspaper, and who learned early on -- "do not accept ipse dixits, analyze for yourself, and feel free to challenge the thoughts of others." These were among many convictions that shaped his entire life as a lawyer, professor of law, and government official. These convictions recur repeatedly in the fascinating description of his work in all of these capacities.

Suffice it to say, Ed Cohen has achieved his book's "original purpose," to demonstrate that his professional life, which was "devoted primarily to the practice and teaching of tax law" has not been "dull and dreary," but rather "dramatic, humorous and exciting." Cohen's enthusiasm, as he returns to the classroom at the University of Virginia Law School in his 80th year, is palpable and, I hope, contagious. Perhaps next he will put aside his tennis racket and golf clubs to take up basketball. Enjoy!

Death of David Westfall

I am sorry to bring you news of the death of David Westfall, holder of the Carl F. Schipper, Jr. and John L. Gray Professorships at Harvard Law School, at age 78.  From the Harvard press release:

Westfall possessed wide-ranging expertise in labor law, family law, and estate planning. He was the author, co-author, or editor of a number of scholarly publications. His volume on family law was published in 1994, and the fourth edition of his casebook and supplement on Estate Planning Law and Taxation (with George P. Mair and Rebecca Benson) appeared in 2001.

In a statement to the Harvard Law School community today, Dean Elena Kagan said: “Before he became a colleague, David was a teacher of mine, and he was always exceedingly generous to me. I will miss him, as I know a great many of you will. David served this school devotedly for 50 years, and we should all be grateful.”

Death of Kingsbury Browne

I am sorry to bring you news of the death of Kingsbury Browne at age 82.  He was a prominent Boston tax lawyer at the former Hill & Barlow law firm, an influential conservationist who inspired the founding of the Land Trust Alliance, and an adjunct faculty member at Boston University, Northeastern, and Suffolk law schools.  For further details, see:

• Boston Globe
• L.A. Times
• Land Trust Alliance
• New York Times

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in his honor to the Land Trust Alliance.

Death of Fred Peel

I am sorry to bring you the news that Fred Peel, Jr., Tax Prof emeritus at Arkansas-Little Rock, died on November 10.  His long-time friend and colleague, Philip D. Oliver, wants to share his thoughts with the broader tax community:

Fred was 87 and had been in poor health for the past three years. He died in Los Gatos, California, near San Jose, and is survived by his wife Evelyn and daughter Ellen.

After being graduated from Harvard and Harvard Law, and spending the war in the OSS, Fred hit all the bases in tax -- six years with the government, the final four as Staff Attorney with the Joint Committee; twenty-five years in private practice in Washington; and eleven years as a full-time faculty member, followed by several more, in Little Rock and later in Calif, on a part-time basis. He started full-time teaching at age 58, but was not ready to slide toward retirement -- during his eleven years of full-time teaching, in addition to a busy writing schedule, he taught 14 different courses.

Fred was best known for his treatise on Consolidated Tax Returns (Clark Boardman Callaghan), of which he produced the first edition while still in practice and which he carried through several editions. He also wrote, in addition to many articles, Federal Income Taxation for General Practice Lawyers for the General Practice Section of the ABA, and he teamed with me to work on the first edition of a text on Tax Policy published by Foundation Press.

Fred was also a really nice guy, a pleasant and humorous conversationalist, and generally a pleasure to be around.

Shaviro on Remarks on David Bradford

Daniel N. Shaviro (NYU) has published Remarks on David Bradford, 58 National Tax Journal 371-72 (Sept. 2005). Here is the abstract:

In tax reform circles, David Bradford is best known as a leading, or really the leading, consumption tax advocate. But he was an unusual sort of advocate. In law, we think of an advocate as someone who's paid to take a position. Thus, if you're arguing in front of the Supreme Court, it somehow turns out that all issues and precedents favor your client.

For prior TaxProf Blog coverage of the tragic death of David Bradford, see here, here, here, here, and here.

Death of Meade Whitaker

I am sorry to bring you the news of the death on October 5 of Meade Whitaker, who served as a Judge on the U.S. Tax Court from 1981-1995.  After practicing with Cabaniss, Johnston & Gardner in Birmingham, AL for 25 years (1948-73), with a brief stint as Tax Legislation Counsel in the Treasury Department (1969-70), he served as Chief Counsel of the IRS (1973-77) and then practiced with Arter & Hadden in Washington, D.C and was Federal Tax Director, Office of General Counsel, Ford Motor Co.

For more details of Judge Whitaker's distinguished career, see here, here, and here.  For the announcement of President Reagan's nomination of Judge Whitaker to serve on the Tax Court, see here.  (Thanks to Jim Maule (Villanova) for the tip.)

Tax Notes Tribute to Boris Bittker

Tax Notes has reprinted our Tax Prof Memorial Tribute:  Boris Bittker as Tax Profs Remember Boris Bittker, 109 Tax Notes 119 (Oct. 3, 2005), also available on the Tax Analysts web site as Doc 2005-19746, 2005 TNT 191-41.

Tax Prof Memorial Tribute: Boris Bittker

Last week, we brought you the news of the death of Boris Bittker (Yale), one of the true tax giants of the 20th century.  Boris's life and work influenced generations of tax professors, many of whom offer their rembrances below:

• Joseph Bankman (Stanford)
• Martin Begleiter (Drake)
• John A. Bogdanski (Lewis & Clark)
• Paul L. Caron (Cincinnati)
• Sheldon S. Cohen (Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Washington, D.C.)
• Gersham Goldstein (Stoel Rives, Portland, OR)
• Michael J. Graetz (Yale)
• John Lee (William & Mary)
• Michael A. Livingston (Rutgers-Camden)
• Michael J. McIntyre (Wayne State)
• Martin J. McMahon, Jr. (Florida)
• Karla W. Simon (Catholic)
• Norton L. Steuben (Colorado)
• John A. Swain (Arizona)

• Robin Wright Westbrook (Washington & Lee)

I want to add to these remembrances a story from the Yale Daily News that captures Boris's humor and modesty that are highlighted in the tributes below:

There was one story Bittker liked to retell, [Dean] Koh recalled. It was about the day Bittker's daughter was born, which coincidentally was the same day he found out from Myres McDougal he had received tenure at Yale. The next morning when Bittker came to class, his students cheered for the new father. But Bittker, assuming the applause was because of his tenure appointment, said modestly, "It's thanks to McDougal," leaving the students laughing and confused.

Continue reading

Death of Boris Bittker

I am sorry to bring you the news of the death last Thursday of Boris Bittker (Yale).  As most readers of this blog know, Professor Bittker was one of the tax giants of the 20th century.  His classic treatises, Federal Taxation of Income, Estates and Gifts (with Lawrence Lokken) and Federal Income Taxation of Corporations and Shareholders (with James Eustice), are the signal tax scholarship accomplishments of my professional lifetime.  From Yale Dean Harold Hongju Koh's press release:

We have received the sad, sad news that our great friend and colleague, Sterling Professor of Law Emeritus Boris I. Bittker '41, passed away on September 8, 2005. His family is gathering here in New Haven, and funeral arrangements are being finalized. We are planning a memorial service to honor Boris at the Law School this term, and details will be posted here as soon as they are available.

For nearly sixty years, our School had no finer scholar or teacher, or more noble citizen. For some highlights of his remarkable career, see here. Please take a moment today to remember this wonderful man.

(Thanks to Brannon P. Denning (Cumberland) for the tip.)

Death of Dick Wellman

I am sorry to bring you news that Richard V. Wellman, Robert Cotten Alston Chair in Corporate Law Emeritus at the University of Georgia School of Law, died Friday at the age of 82.  A long-time teacher of Trusts & Estates, Dick is best known as the Chief Reporter for the 1969 Uniform Probate Code.  Until his death, Dick continued to serve the Uniform Law Conference in many capacities, as Executive Director of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Trust and Estate Acts, and as chair of numerous drafting committees.

The family has requested that anyone wishing to make a contribution in his honor should send it to the Uniform Law Foundation, 211 E. Ontario St., Chicago, IL 60611.

Remembering David Bradford

Daniel Shaviro (NYU) has posted on his blog two tributes to David Bradford (Princeton):

• Dan's tribute at Thursday's National Tax Association meeting focuses on David's tax policy work.  The piece echoes his March 1 Wall Street Journal tribute.
• Dan's tribute at a memorial service at Princeton on Friday is a more personal reflection on David's life.

Memorial contributions in David's memory may be made to:

• Tthe Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad, 237 N. Harrison St., Princeton, NJ 08540
• The Nature Conservancy, Attn: Treasury, 4245 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203
• The Borough of Princeton, 1 Monument Drive, Princeton, NJ 08542 to fund improvements to a neighborhood park on Pine Street (memo line on checks should read: "Dr. David Bradford Trust Fund")

For prior TaxProf Blog coverage of David's tragic death, see here, here, and here.

Remembering Maureen Cavanaugh (1955-2005)

Following up on our prior posts on the untimely death of our friend and colleague Maureen Cavanaugh (here and here), Penn State-Dickinson has asked us to pass along this information to the tax community:

• There will be a memorial service for Maureen on Friday, April 15 in Room 145 at Penn State-Dickinson in Carlisle, Pennsylvania at 11:30 AM.  There will be a reception with a buffet lunch immediately following the service in the Student Lounge area of the Cafe Per Se.  Dean McConnaughay writes:

Our memorial service represents an opportunity for us to pay tribute to a friend and colleague who had a profound impact on the legal community through her unique scholarship and academic achievements, and who was a wonderful embodiment of kindness, good humor and humility to all who knew her.

• Please record your condolences and special memories of Maureen in the on-line guest book here, or via email here.
• If you would like to make a gift in Maureen's honor, please contribute to the Maureen B. Cavanaugh Faculty Scholar fund.  Dean McConnaughay writes:

With the support of a generous gift from Chris, I am pleased to announce the establishment of an endowed faculty position known as the Maureen B. Cavanaugh Faculty Scholar. This position is a lasting tribute to Maureen's brilliant scholarship and dedicated teaching and will be awarded on an annual or biannual basis to a Penn State Dickinson faculty member on the basis of scholarly accomplishment, creativity and promise. Contributions to the Maureen B. Cavanaugh Faculty Scholar endowment may be made by check payable to Penn State University, in care of Doris Orner, Chief Financial Officer, The Dickinson School of Law, 150 South College Street, Carlisle, PA 17013-2899

Remembering Maureen Cavanaugh (1955-2005)

As we noted here with great sadness on Tuesday, our friend and colleague Maureen Cavanaugh has passed away at the too-young age of 50.  Maureen's husband, Chris Plum, has graciously allowed me to share the following information with the tax community:

• Please feel free to send Chris a note to express your condolences and share your remembrances of Maureen, either via email here or via snail mail at 11430 Blackwelltown Road, Midland, VA  22728
• There will be a memorial service for Maureen next Friday (appropriately, April 15) at Penn State-Dickinson in Carlisle, Pennsylvania at 11:30 AM.
• If you would like to make a gift in Maureen's honor, Penn State is establishing a faculty research fellowship in her name.  Contact Penn State Dean Philip J. McConnaughay here for more information.
• Chris writes: "I am sure that many people are asking what the cause of Maureen's untimely death was, and the best explanation (one that she and I agreed upon, although the doctors were unable to come up with a conclusion) is that Maureen had a long (since 1991) struggle with breast cancer, and that when she finally felt she was past it and had a very bright future ahead of her (although even she felt that would probably not be more than 10 years) it struck back without warning and with a vengeance."
• Finally, Chris has written this incredibly moving biography of Maureen that I hope you will take the time to read to learn more about our very special friend and colleague.  We will do well to heed Chris's closing words: "please remember Maureen as I do, with a smile on her face, a twinkle in her eye, and a thought in her mind that will surprise and delight us all."

Death of Maureen Cavanaugh

It is with great sadness that I bring you the news of the death of our friend and colleague Maureen Cavanaugh at the too-young age of 50.  Her Penn State colleague Bill Barker told me the news this morning and asked me to share it with Maureen's many friends and admirers in the tax community. He said that Maureen has been battling a serious illness from some time but did not have any other details.  He promises to keep us posted as other information becomes available.  In the meantime, I thought it would be appropriate to re-run the Tax Prof Profile of Maureen that we published in June:

Maureen Cavanaugh has followed a non-traditional path in becoming one of the leading tax scholars and teachers of her generation. She is leaving her tenured post at Washington & Lee for Penn State-Dickinson and shares with us her story. Let me first fill in some background of her journey.

Maureen earned a B.A. from Swarthmore, M.A. & Ph.D. from Cornell, and (15 years later, in 1995) J.D. from Minnesota, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Law & Inequality. She practiced with Coopers & Lybrand (Minneapolis & Philadelphia) for two years before joining the faculty at Washington & Lee, where she has won numerous research and teaching plaudits. She served as Alumni Teaching Fellow (2001-02) and John W. Elrod Law Alumni Association Fellow in Teaching Excellence (2002-03). Maureen has written several important articles, including:

• Tax as Gatekeeper, Why Company Stock Is Not Worth the Money, 23 Va. Tax Rev. 365 (2003)
• On the Road To Incoherence: Congress, Economics, and Taxes, 49 UCLA L. Rev. 685 (2002)
• Order in Multiplicity: Aristotle on Text, Context, and the Rule of Law, 79 N.C. L. Rev. 577 (2001)

Maureen picks up the story:

My education in and teaching of Classics (Greek, Latin, ancient history, archaeology) proceeded until I had to interrupt it to run a rental real estate firm and do elder care after my aunt had her first massive stroke. Hence my interest in employee benefits -- first hand experience.

Family obligations have a way of not being "neat" in terms of time obligations or commitments, so when all was said and done, it seemed eminently more practical for me to go to law school rather than go back into the ever shrinking classics job market (since finding a job in the same area as my husband has proved challenging throughout our careers post-college). Tax turned out to be like Classics in its need to look at everything; the Code is more like Greek inscriptions (the subject of my dissertation) than anything else in law school so it was a natural "fit." (I did get to update and revise my doctoral dissertation, Eleusis and Athens: Documents in Finance, Religion and Politics in the Fifth Century B.C. (1996), for publication before law school and complete the final editorial work on it during law school. It turns out that my book was to be my first look at ancient finance and taxation while my law school note was the beginning of my interest in what Aristotle might add to modern legal discourse.)

After law school, I joined Coopers & Lybrand, a choice dictated in part by the nature of tax practice in Minneapolis and because the judge I was to clerk for was diagnosed with a brain tumor (it is hard to complain about the need to look for a job when the first woman Minnesota Court of Appeals Chief Judge is dying of a brain tumor!). Practice was fun but, as everyone knows, there is no time for writing -- which I found I had been able to do with my book even in law school.

I got my first job in teaching tax at W&L in 1998 and received tenure there in 2002. The desire to live with my husband who works in the D.C. area (never having found a satisfactory job closer) and the possibility of being at a first-rate research university (useful for my inter-disciplinary work) has me leaving W&L to join Penn State-Dickinson. The first part of my inter-disciplinary work combining my interest in tax and antiquity is my article on Athenian Taxation, Democracy, Equality, and Taxes, 54 Ala. Law Rev. 415 (2003), cited by New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning Reporter David Cay Johnston in his April 18th article, A Taxation Policy to Make John Stuart Mill Weep [blogged here]. I am currently working on an article on Roman taxation.

Carlisle is quite a bit closer to D.C. and many new faculty have spousal connections there, so the administration is understanding. The impending move (at least part of the Law School will move to University Park, it now appears, although nothing is definite at this moment) is so far in the future as to require discounting its present value to zero (and since my husband works for one of the companies owned by the major airlines, the nature of that business will probably be quite different in 5 years.). In the meantime, we will enjoy living together under the same roof and wait and see what the future brings.

NY Times Obituary of David Bradford

See David Bradford's New York Times obituary.  We all share Martin Feldstein's view:

"David's creative ideas have profoundly shaped tax reform," said Martin Feldstein, the Harvard economics professor and president of the National Bureau of Economic Research. 

 

Death of David Bradford

I am sorry to report that David Bradford (Princeton) died today at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia from extensive injuries sustained in a fire in his home two weeks ago (previously reported here).  From the Princeton web site:

"All members of the University community are immensely saddened at the loss of our beloved colleague and teacher David Bradford. He was a fine scholar and a man of intelligence and integrity," said Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. "In all his dealings, both personal and professional, he took care to do the right thing and took time to do it right. We will miss him greatly and remember him with affection and respect."

Death of Jerry Kasner

Jerry Kasner, a faculty member at Santa Clara for 38 years and a nationally-recognized estate planning authority, died at the age of 71. From the Santa Clara press release:

Jerry Allan Kasner, a renowned law school faculty member, passed away on October 21, 2004 in Grass Valley, California at the age of 71.

He was born in Des Moines Iowa, on March 20, 1933. Professor Kasner received his B.S. in 1955 and his J.D. in 1957, both from Drake University. He was admitted to the Iowa State Bar in 1957 and the California State Bar in 1959. He was a professor of law for 38 years at Santa Clara University’s School of Law, from 1961 – 1998. He was completely dedicated to his students and law professor colleagues. In 1996 he received Santa Clara University’s Award for Sustained Excellence in Scholarship. He also received a distinguished alumnus award from Drake University Law School. Santa Clara University Professor of Law, Father Paul Goda said, “Jerry’s collegiality exceeded his brilliance as a teacher and we will miss him greatly.”

Professor Kasner was an expert in tax law and spoke at professional seminars across the country. He was a CPA as well as a lawyer and a law professor, and taught continuing education classes for the California CPA Society’s Education Foundation for many years. He received the 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from the California CPA Education Foundation and the California CPA Education Foundation’s Award for Meritorious Service in 1985. Because of his commitment to teaching and his expertise, the Silicon Valley San Jose Chapter of the California Society of CPAs renamed their scholarship award for an outstanding Santa Clara University senior accounting student the Jerry Kasner Scholarship.

Professor Kasner was known for his outstanding contributions to estate planning professionals and served as a mentor to many estate planners in Santa Clara County. He wrote many articles and publications on taxation, community property and estate planning. He authored numerous books on estate planning including The Tools and Techniques of Estate Planning and Guide to Practical Estate Planning. Professor Kasner was a participant in panels and lectures for the California Continuing Education of the Bar, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New York University, the University of Miami and various other professional and educational institutions. According to Dean Donald J. Polden of Santa Clara University School of Law, “Jerry Kasner was the epitome of greatness in legal education. He was a scholar, a wonderful teacher and a distinguished community servant. He will be missed by all of us.”

In Memoriam: John S. Pennell

Senior Tax Court Judge Lapsley W. Hamblen, Jr. published a memorial tribute for John S. Pennell, who died on March 27, 2004, in 57 Tax Law. 855 (2004). Here is the concluding paragraph of Judge Hamblen's moving tribute: 

We who have been fortunate to know and work with John Pennell are enriched and made better by that experience.  We shall very much miss this superb colleague who enlightened and entertained us at so many tax conferences, especially when on a panel with Marty Ginsburg.  His contributions to the Tax Section, to tax law, and as a friend to so many, provide us with fond memories and solid values that will remain with us.

Death of Paul Huard

Paul R. Huard, CFO of the National Association of Manufacturers, died on November 29. He was 60. According to the Washington Post obituary, Mr. Huard received his J.D. (1969) and tax LL.M. (1974) from Georgetown:

He began his career as a claims examiner with the Social Security Administration before joining the enforcement division of the SEC in 1969. In 1972, he became a lawyer in the office of general counsel at the National Association of Manufacturers. Mr. Huard rose to associate general counsel at the association, and in 1977, he left to run a tax law firm as a sole practitioner. Rejoining the association as vice president for taxation and fiscal policy in 1981, Mr. Huard was promoted to senior vice president of policy and programming in 1993, and to executive vice president in 1999. He was chief financial officer at the time of his death. Mr. Huard was a member of a Friday night poker group of like-minded tax experts for 30 years.

Death of Georgia Tax Prof Larry Blount

Tuesday, May 4, 2004

Georgia tax professor Larry Blount died Sunday. He was only 53 years old.

Professor Blount earned his B.A. from Michigan (1972), his J.D. from Cincinnati (1975), and his LL.M. from Columbia (1980). He joined the Georgia law faculty in 1976 and taught federal income tax, partnership tax, corporate tax, tax policy, and law and religion. He wrote several tax books and articles, including Tax Deductions (Warren, Gorham & Lamont, 1982).

TaxProf Blog sends its condolences to Professor Blount's family, friends, colleagues, and students. We invite others to share their remembrances of Professor Blount here.

For the University of Georgia's announcement of Professor Blount's death, see here.