Preliminary Inventory of the Willard Pedrick Papers

Willard H. Ped Pedrick was born on October 1, 1914. He graduated from Parsons College in Iowa in 1936 and earned his law degree from Northwestern University in 1939. After serving a clerkship with the Hon. Fred M. Vinson, Pedrick served in the U.S. Marines and held positions in the federal government. He began teaching in 1944 and worked at the University of Cincinnati and at the University of Texas before returning to Northwestern. Here, he earned a national reputation as an outstanding professor and scholar in the fields of torts, taxation, and estate planning.

In 1966, Arizona State University President J. Homer Durham hired Pedrick to found the institution's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. The first class (which included blacks, Native Americans, and women) graduated in 1970. Pedrick returned to the faculty in 1976 and travelled around the country as a visiting professor in addition to championing such causes as minority and women's rights. He formally retired in 1983 but remained involved with the College until suffering a stroke in 1992. Pedrick died in Phoenix on January 29, 1996.