Obituaries
Posted April 5, 2000
April 16 Memorial Service for David Daube, Law Professor and Scholar
The School of Law and the Robbins Hebraic and Roman Law Collection will hold a service on Sunday, April 16, honoring the life and memory of law professor and scholar David Daube (1909-1999). The service will begin at 2 p.m. in Boalt Hall's Goldberg Room and will be followed by a reception.
Speakers will include Calum Carmichael, professor of biblical studies and literature at Cornell University; Edwin Epstein, former dean of the Haas School of Business; Herma Hill Kay, dean of the law school; Laurent Mayali, professor of law and director of the Robbins Collection; Nancy Scheper-Hughes, professor of anthropology; and Kathleen Vanden Heuvel, law library deputy director.
Born in Germany, Daube was considered one of the finest legal scholars in the world, having a tremendous impact upon Biblical, Greek, Roman and Talmudic law and literature in Germany, Britain and the United States. He was renowned for his ingenious and brilliant synthesis of literary, religious and legal texts; his extraordinary scope of expertise and understanding; and his elegant, humanistic approach to all aspects of life.
Daube joined the Boalt faculty in 1970, when he was director of the Robbins Hebraic and Roman Law Collection until 1976, and taught Roman law, ancient law and law of the Bible and Talmud until 1994. Before coming to Berkeley, Daube was a professor at the University of Aberdeen and Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford and regularly visited at the University of Constanz in Germany. He was educated at the Universities of Freiburg and Goettingen and at Cambridge and Oxford. His publications include Aspects of Roman Law; Sin, Ignorance and Forgiveness in the Bible; and The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism.
For information about the memorial service, contact Kathleen Vanden Heuvel at kvandenh@law.berkeley.edu or call 643-9147.
Earle Gorton Linsley
Earle Gorton Linsley, former dean of what is today the College of Natural Resources, died in Sonoma, March 8, at the age of 89.
One of the world's leading authorities on the classification and biology of wild bees and wood-boring beetles, Linsley served as chairman of the Department of Entomology and Parasitology from 1951 to 1959, and as dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences from 1960 to 1973, in the years leading up to the creation of the College of Natural Resources.
"It was his leadership," said Henry Vaux Sr., former dean of the School of Forestry, "that enabled the college to retain its strength and to adapt."
'Gort,' as he was known to friends, was born in Oakland and received his doctorate in entomology from Berkeley in 1938. He became a staff member in the entomology department the following year, assistant professor in 1943 and full professor in 1953.
Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology Milt Schroth, whom Linsley appointed as the college's first dean for research in the mid-1960s, called Linsley "a great role model" with "amazing intuitive and analytical abilities with respect to determining the best courses of action for the college…. The College of Natural Resources prospered under his watch," said Schroth.
Linsley and Ray Smith, who succeeded him as department chairman, oversaw reorganization of the college's entomology program to become the Department of Entomological Sciences in 1963.
"This was a tremendous accomplishment," recalled entomology Professor Emeritus Ned Sylvester. "Under Smith's and Linsley's leadership, the Department of Entomological Sciences became the foremost department of its kind in the United States."
A prolific writer, Linsley published more than 400 scientific articles and books. His many honors included the Fellows Medal from the California Academy of Sciences, the Centennial Medal of the State Agricultural Experiment Station and the Berkeley Citation.
Linsley is survived by two children, James Linsley and Joan Linsley MacFarlane.
April 5-11, 2000
(Volume 28, Number 27)
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