An Oral History: William H. Southard
| Publication year | 1998 |
| Pages | 27 |
| Citation | Vol. 27 No. 8 Pg. 27 |
1998, August, Pg. 27. An Oral History: William H. Southard
Vol. 27, No. 8, Pg. 27
The Colorado Lawyer
August 1998
Vol. 27, No. 8 [Page 27]
August 1998
Vol. 27, No. 8 [Page 27]
Features
An Oral History: William H. Southard
by Charles Karowsky
by Charles Karowsky
This is the fourteenth in a series of articles on
distinguished Colorado lawyers that will be printed in The
Colorado Lawyer, based on interviews by members of the
Colorado Bar Association Centennial Committee. The project is
part of the CBA's 100th anniversary celebration, and is
an effort to capture our history. This interview was
conducted by Greeley attorney Charles Karowsky. An edited
transcript of the interview follows
Q: Tell me about law school
A: I went to Harvard Law School in the fall of 1938, and
graduated in 1941. Yes, I enjoyed law school. The differences
between the Socratic method used there and the lecture method
used in many places was a big contrast. One interesting thing
was that when our dean, a "New Dealer" who taught
contracts, was called to Washington by President Roosevelt
we had Samuel Williston as a substitute teacher. He was
considered the most famous professor in that field, and he
had been retired for quite some time-so that was wonderful. I
was not the first Greeley person to go to Harvard. Donald
McCreery, Paul Conway, who had quite a book on contracts, and
then of course Judge Robert Behrman went there long after I
had been there, after the war.
Q: How difficult was it?
A: In the first class they told you to look to the left of
you and look to the right of you; one of you won't be
there next year.
Q: Was that generally true?
A: Yes, and for some families, it was a terrible sacrifice
for their child to go there. We had a couple of suicides, one
jumped in the Charles River and swam underneath the ice and
was gone. Another one shot himself. Some of these boys were
coming from New York-families that had very meager
circumstances and, although they worked hard, the student
loans were also very meager at the time, so it was difficult
for them. The library would open up and some of those fellows
would go in there when the library opened and they would
study and work until it closed at 9 at night, and of course
they didn't take care of their health. At the rooming
house where I lived the first year, there were four
first-year students. Two of them didn't make it. I was
one of the lucky ones.
Q: You were admitted in 1940?
A: Yes, so I got to practice some before I got drafted. I do
remember one case back then where John O'Hagan and I
represented two people who lived out east of Platteville.
Rattlesnake Kate Slaughterback (she had an icebox full of
pickled rattlesnakes, which was a great delicacy, on her back
porch) was the aunt of my fellow, and he'd been caught
stealing some farm machinery. There was not much we could do,
but John and I remember we went down together to interview
all these witnesses because John had a companion case on it,
and I don't know how many rattlesnakes we killed while we
were down there. Really!
Those were the days when you got appointed to the criminal
court. You got $25 for a capital case and $10 for the others
There were no public defenders, but that was just one of the
early interesting things.
Q: You were in the service for four...
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