Alumnus Renames Professorship to Honor Former Law School Dean

INDIANAPOLIS – An Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis alumnus and donor has chosen to commemorate the service of a former law school dean by re-naming an endowed professorship in the dean’s honor. In 2001, Michael D. McCormick, class of ’80, made a substantial gift to the IU School of Law-Indianapolis. The gift created two endowed professorships which were named the Michael D. McCormick I Professorship and the Michael D. McCormick II Professorship.

This month, McCormick, the former executive vice president and general counsel of Bindley Western Industries and a long-time supporter of the law school, chose to recognize Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus William F. Harvey by re-naming the McCormick I professorship in Harvey’s honor. The change will be effective July 1, 2006.

The William F. Harvey Professorship commemorates Professor Harvey’s many years of teaching and service to the law school and the legal profession. Professor Harvey joined the law school faculty in 1968. He served as the law school’s dean from 1973 until 1979, while McCormick was a student at the school. He stepped down as dean to accept the appointment as Carl M. Gray Professor of Law, the school’s first endowed professorship.

With the name change, the current Michael D. McCormick I Professor, Florence Wagman Roisman, will become the William F. Harvey Professor.

Harvey is the author of widely recognized volumes on civil procedure and evidence, and for 23 years he was the vice chairman of the Indiana Supreme Court Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure. In 1985, he was selected by President Ronald Reagan for nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

In April of 2006, Harvey received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indianapolis Legal Aid Society, which he has supported for more than 30 years. On that occasion, several former students including Indiana Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels; former Vice President and Mrs. Dan Quayle; former Ambassador to Germany, Daniel Coats; Indiana Court of Appeals Chief Judge James S. Kirsch; and Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Margret G. Robb, among others, praised Harvey for his professional career.

Others commending Harvey at the award presentation were former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese; Indiana Supreme Court Justices Brent E. Dickson and Frank E. Sullivan; Jr., Federal Judge Sarah Evans Barker, and Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson.

In 1996, Harvey was appointed to the Council of Sagamores of the Wabash by Governor Evan Bayh. For 10 years, he was a member of the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarship Committee of Indiana University.

With the re-naming of the McCormick I Professorship, the Michael D. McCormick II Professorship will become the Michael D. McCormick Professorship and will continue to be held by Professor George Wright.