Dean Wade J. Newhouse Jr.

During his tenure as dean, Wade Newhouse was an early adopter of computer technology, which he used to review the law school’s administrative structure. He forged stronger ties between the law school and its alumni by overseeing the school’s 100th-anniversary celebration, and helped organize a clinic to help Buffalo public school students claim their due process rights when suspended or expelled from school. The design of John Lord O’Brian Hall, home of the law school, in large part reflects his influence.

He was born on a cotton farm 100 miles north of Memphis immediately preceding the stock market crash and the Depression. He graduated from Memphis Tech in 1940 and sold vacuum cleaners before enlisting in the Army, after Pearl Harbor, in September 1941.

When he got out of the Army in September 1945, he had the GI Bill to support his tuition. He entered Southwestern College in Memphis and earned a degree in political science in 1948. He then entered the University of Michigan Law School and was mentored by Professor Bill Bishop in international law. After graduating in 1951, Newhouse wanted to work for the Legal Adviser’s Office in the State Department, but President Truman had just imposed a job freeze on the position. So Newhouse pivoted to law teaching—first at Creighton, in 1953, and then at Columbia University, before arriving in Buffalo in 1958.

The private University of Buffalo School of Law was small at the time: seven full-time faculty and about 150 students. Jack Hyman was the dean. But Newhouse was happy. He taught Constitutional and Foreign Relations Law, a merger of his two favorite areas: Constitutional Law and International Law.

By 1965, he became more engaged with the local community when he served on the Sweet Home School Board. He became involved with a parent group as an advocate for disabled and handicapped schoolchildren. Before long, he added to his teaching load handicapped and disabled law as a part of school/education law, as well as public sector bargaining and New York State law.

According to Newhouse, the three major developments that most influenced the law school from the 1960s through the 1970s were:

1. Becoming part of the SUNY system in 1962-64, which had a tremendous impact on the school’s size.
2. The move to the North Campus.
3. The change in the composition of the student body from white men to more women, minorities and second-career students.

Born Nov. 22, 1922—Died May 21, 2014