Foreword: thank you, Dale.

• Author: Freyermuth, R. Wilson
• Position: Symposium: A Festschrift in Honor of Dale A. Whitman

Often in symposium issues, it is customary for the organizer to prepare a foreword that introduces each author and presents a brief synopsis of each article. As is true for most symposia, the authors in this issue (and their articles) are worthy of such praise and attention. I hope you will read and enjoy each of the articles, but this foreword is not going to summarize or describe them. Instead, with the indulgence of the other authors, this foreword will focus on Dale Whitman--in whose honor these articles were prepared and presented at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law on April 13 and 14, 2007.

Throughout his long career, Dale Whitman has been one of the leading intellectual lights in the field of mortgage law. Since he began his teaching career at the University of North Carolina, Dale has achieved an impressive and sustained record of outstanding scholarship. He has published 37 articles and 8 books (most in multiple editions)--including Real Estate Finance Law, the definitive authority on the mortgage law field (now in its Fifth Edition). As the list in the appendix to this foreword indicates, Dale's partnership with Grant Nelson must certainly rank as one of the most productive academic partnerships in all of American legal scholarship.

The most significant product of this partnership is the landmark Restatement (Third) of Property: Mortgages, approved by the American Law Institute in May 1996, for which Dale and Grant served as co-Reporters. In the Restatement, Dale and Grant comprehensively attempted to bring rationality and coherence to mortgage law--a body of law not always known for its rationality and coherence (as teachers of mortgage law can attest). While it is still early to judge the ultimate success of their efforts in a quantitative way, citation review indicates that the Restatement is having a substantial influence in the continuing evolution of mortgage law. (1)

Dale's leadership and stature as a scholar has likewise prompted his involvement in numerous other law reform efforts. Dale served as the Reporter for the Uniform Nonjudicial Foreclosure Act, approved by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law in 2004. He has served as an adviser (either for the American Bar Association, the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, or the American College of Mortgage Attorneys) to drafting committees for the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act and the Uniform Transfer on Death Deed for Real Property Act, and he serves on the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Real Property Acts. Dale's involvement and contributions to law reform provide not only a role model for those of us teaching in the real estate field, but also a...