ALI Life Member M. Minnette Masseyof the University of Miami School of Law, passed away on November 13. She was 89.
After graduating from University of Miami School of Law in 1951, Professor Massey joined the faculty in 1958, becoming the university’s first female law professor. By 1961, she had ascended to assistant dean of the law school.One year later, was promoted to acting dean, the first woman to hold that position. She served in that role for more than three years. In 2015 she retired from the university after 57 years of service.
The M. Minnette Massey Chair in Law was established through the generosity of a consortium of Miami Law alumni and friends.
"The University of Miami Law School has lost perhaps its greatest champion," said Charlton Copeland, holder of the first M. Minnette Massey Chair in Law.
"She believed in the excellence of this law school. She believed in the excellence of her students. She believed that together they might build a more excellent future.But she was not taken with nostalgia or bygone days. Her commitment was a commitment to a more inclusive, more relevant excellence. If that is not the mark of a great institutional and, and civic, champion, I don't know what is. I mourn Minnette's passing, but I also mourn something of the passing of Minnette's vision for Miami Law, for our law students, and for our collective civic lives."