Marshall D. Ewell

Founders Group

 

Founded Kent College of Law, which merged with Chicago College of Law in 1902 to become Chicago-Kent College of Law. Chicago-Kent merged with IIT in 1969. Marshall D. Ewell was a respected lawyer, educator, and doctor. With so many accomplishments to his credit it is amazing that he also found time to establish a law college, author textbooks, and serve as an expert medical witness in high-profile court cases concerning microscopy, handwriting analysis, and medical jurisprudence.

For 10 years, Ewell served as president of the law school he founded as Kent College of Law before it merged with Chicago College of Law. The combined school, named Chicago-Kent College of Law, became a recognized leader in the education of men and women who made their careers in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of state and national government. Illinois is particularly favored to have had so many of its public officials and practicing attorneys educated at Chicago-Kent, both before and since its acquisition in 1969 by Illinois Institute of Technology as our university’s law school.

Ewell’s particular contribution to jurisprudence was to help move the study of law out of judges’ chambers where apprentices “read the law” under the watchful eye of a veteran mentor into the academic arena of university classrooms. In doing so, his contribution to the success of individual careers was multiplied many times over as succeeding generations of legal practitioners and students came to realize the benefits of formal academic study as entrée into the fields of law and public office.

Last modified: 02/12/2013 03:08:42