Kenneth Dam, former College provost, and Law College scholar, 1932-2022.

Appropriate scholar offered as a deputy assistant in U.S. sections of Treasury and State.

Kenneth Willard Dam, a former College of Chicago provost and longtime Law College teacher who offered as a deputy assistant in the U.S. sections of Treasury and State, died May 31. He was 89.

The Law School’s Maximum Pam Professor Emeritus of National & International Law, Dam, was among the nation’s foremost domestic and foreign economic law scholars. He devoted a lot of his career to public planning and his academic and government function, offered in excellent corporate and nonprofit articles, on the panels of various organizations, and as an elderly other at the Brookings Institute.

An alum of the Law College, Dam, JD’57, used his entire academic career at the College of Chicago. His scholarship was focused on legislation and economics, and he directed the Law School’s legislation and economics plan for several years.

He was the next provost of the College of Chicago, offering from 1980 until 1982 when Leader Ronald Reagan asked him to function as deputy to U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, former dean of the Cubicle College of Business.

“Ken Dam was an excellent scholar, a devoted public servant, and a pleased associate,” said Thomas J. Miles, dean of the Law College and the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Law and Economics. “His decades of benefits to the Law College, the College of Chicago, and our state are profoundly loved and will be long remembered. On behalf of the entire neighborhood, I increase our deepest compassion to Ken’s household and friends.”

Kenneth Dam, former University provost and longtime Law School faculty member

Former College of Chicago Leader Hanna Holborn Dull, the Harry Pratt Judson Notable Company Professor Emeritus of Record, below whom Dam offered as provost, recalled Dam as “a good friend and an excellent citizen of the College, generally prepared to function constructively on its behalf and never claiming credit while this significantly good.”

“He and I labored closely together when he was provost. He liked the work as it allowed him to learn so significantly about the width of the College and its applications, to find so several fascinating persons and such a range of ideas, to understand the complicated problems that arose every day,” Dull said. “Probably the most fair-minded of men, he brought an amazing calm and exceptional judgment to it all. I was fortunate to possess liked two years of the collaboration before Ken remained to function as Deputy Secretary of State to George Shultz and further to satisfy his excellent public service.”

Dam, who was born in Marysville, Kansas, in 1932, became through to a farm and attended the College of Kansas. After graduating in 1954, he headed to the College of Chicago Law School. After getting his J.D., he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Whittaker, then embarked on an extensive, decades-long career that will include legislation, company exercise, corporate function, government support, and academia.

The dam was offered as deputy secretary—the second-ranking official—in the Department of the Treasury from 2001 to 2003 and deputy assistant in the Department of State from 1982 to 1985. In 1973, he was government director of the White Home Council on Financial Policy, wherever he was responsible for matching U.S. domestic and international economic policy. From 1971 to 1973, he offered as associate director for national security and international affairs in the Office of Management and Budget.

His academic career started earlier when he joined the Law College as an associate teacher in 1960. He offered as a person in the faculty, with numerous leaves of lack, for the rest of his life. The dam was called a teacher of legislation in 1964 and the Harold J. and Marion F. Natural Professor of International Appropriate Report in 1976. He directed the Law School’s legislation and economics plan between 1978 and 1980 and 1995 and 1999. Between 1992 and 2004, he was the Maximum Pam Professor of National and International Law (with leave for government support between 2001 and 2003). In 2004, after returning from the Department of the Treasury, he turned into an elderly lecturer and the Maximum Pam teacher emeritus.

Nearly all of Dam’s academic functions are dedicated to legislation and economics, particularly concerning international issues. His journals include several publications, including The GATT: Law and International Financial Company; Financial Policy Beyond the Headlines with George P. Shultz; and The Law-Growth Nexus: The Concept of Law and Financial Development.

“Kenneth Dam’s remarkable career as a scholar, College provost, and public servant will be rightly celebrated, but what I’ll remember most are Ken’s features, his warmth, and kindness as a faculty member and mentor,” said Vice Provost Daniel Abebe, the Harold J. and Marion F. Natural Professor of Law. “Ken was generally large in discussing the heavy knowledge obtained from several years of notable support, and I’m happy to possess been his colleague.”

Geoffrey R. Stone, JD’71, the Edward H. Levi Notable Company Professor of Law, realized Dam for more than five decades, starting when Stone was a student in Dam’s Antitrust class.

“He was a thoughtful and highly respected teacher,” Stone said. After joining the Law College as an associate teacher in 1973, Dam was “a vibrant and useful associate and an excellent scholar.”

Kenneth Dam, JD’57, began his academic career in 1960 as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

Both Stone and Dam offered as provost of the University—Stone from 1993 to 2002—and it had been throughout Stone’s time as dean of the Law College that Dam delivered to the faculty after higher than a decade in various roles.

“Ken and I’d several fascinating interactions during his (and my) career,” Stone said. “He was a truly exceptional teacher, associate, and scholar, who represented the most effective of our Law School’s values and aspirations.”

Douglas Baird, a former dean and the Harry A. Bigelow Notable Company Professor of Law: “A legislation and economics leader, an outstanding teacher and a notable statesman, Ken Dam were for six decades among the Law School’s best buddies and its deans’ wisest counselors.”

Sr. Lect. Richard Epstein, the Wayne Parker Corridor Notable Company Professor Emeritus of Law, said he and his wife, Eileen, liked a decades-long friendship with Dam and Marcia, who started soon after meeting them. Their three kids spent my youth in Hyde Park at about the same time because of the Dam’s kids, Eliot and Charlotte.

“It needed only a short span to understand that Ken was a person of great information and judgment, perfect behavior, and a standard of quality that noted all facets of his life,” Epstein said. “It was generally a good source of pleasure to view how his ever-adventurous wife, Marcia, presented the best in the more cautiously oriented Ken. It was a delight to work with him at the Law College and a genuine address to see how he negotiated the countless pitfalls of university government when he was offered as provost. Eileen and I increase our best wishes to Marcia, Charlotte, and Eliot in this many hard times. They may be assured that Ken has a secure investment in the history of the College and the life of the state he offered so effectively for several years.”

Kenneth Dam (seated second from right) served as provost during the tenure of President Hanna Holborn Gray (right). He is pictured in 2012 alongside predecessors and successors as provost, Thomas Rosenbaum, Richard Saller, Geoffrey Stone, Norman Bradburn and Edward Laumann (left to right).

Dam’s other pursuits include offering as IBM vice leader for legislation and other relations from 1985 to 1992 and as a leader and critical government specialist of the United Methods of America for a six-month time in 1992, when he was opted to completely clean up a scandal because the organization and put in place a new system of governance. His legislation company exercise involved two years as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York between 1958 and 1960 and numerous intervals of support as counsel or as an advisor to Kirkland & Ellis between 1961 and 1996.

He’d like intensive knowledge as an arbitrator, including five years as the system arbitrator for professional basketball between 1996 and 2001 and in 2012.

He was an honorary person at the table of the Brookings Institution. He also was a board person in the Committee for Financial Development, a person in the Darkness Financial Regulatory Committee, and chairman of the German-American Academic Council. He was a board person in several nonprofit institutions, such as the Council on International Relations in New York and the Chicago Council on International Relations. He offered for 13 years on the table of Alcoa and was a person on the advisory table for BMW of North America for five years in the 1990s.