Remembering UW Law Emeritus Professor Frank Tuerkheimer
Frank Tuerkheimer, University of Wisconsin Law School emeritus professor who served as an associate special prosecutor for the Watergate scandal, died Sept. 16, 2023, in Madison; he was 84.
Tuerkheimer, who graduated from New York University School of Law, was highly regarded for his wide-reaching experience.
Prior to joining the Law School faculty in 1970, Tuerkheimer served as a law clerk to the Honorable Edward Weinfeld, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York; and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. His prosecutions against process servers for failure to serve complaints as alleged in affidavits of service were the first cases brought under the Civil Rights Act for deprivations of property without due process of law.
Tuerkheimer also worked on the Watergate Prosecution staff, where he investigated illegal dairy industry contributions and was chief trial counsel in the case against former Secretary of the Treasury John Connally. He later served as U. S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin under the Carter administration, where, among other things, he initiated a model Clean Water Act enforcement program.
“Frank combined practical wisdom with a passion for justice in a way that few other law professors can match.” — Dean Dan Tokaji
Notably, one of his first professional experiences was as a legal assistant to the attorney general of newly independent Swaziland (now known as Eswatini), helping to write the country’s first constitution.
In 2014, Tuerkheimer co-authored the book “Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust” with Michael J. Bazyler. It showcases how the perpetrators were dealt with in courtrooms around the world, revealing how various legal systems responded to the atrocities. He also taught a course on the subject, important to him because he was born months after his family fled Nazi Germany.
Tuerkheimer also wrote numerous articles on evidence and litigation as well as briefs in a large number of trial and appellate cases. In 1996, he wrote an electronic evidence book, which contains a textual explanation of the rules of evidence, the rules, selected cases and the complete transcript of a trial. It was a first in legal education.
Tuerkheimer was a member of the advisory board to EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and testified before Congress on proposed legislation affecting the internet. Beginning in 1985, he was of counsel to the Madison law firm of LaFollette & Sinykin, now Godfrey and Kahn, where, in addition to representing private clients, he pursued pro bono representation. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Giessen Law School in Giessen, Germany, in 2010.
Leisure pursuits included reading in the sciences, biking, sailing and travel.
“Frank combined practical wisdom with a passion for justice in a way that few other law professors can match,” said Dean Dan Tokaji.
In Memory of Ralph Cagle
Ralph Cagle, who spent 25 years of his four-decade legal career at University of Wisconsin Law School, died Dec. 1, 2023, at age 78.
Cagle was also well-known for serving in 2015-16 as the 60th president of the State Bar of Wisconsin.
Cagle came to Wisconsin from the East Coast in 1968 at age 23 to work for state Senator Fred Risser. Cagle later worked as assistant to then-Assembly Speaker Norman Anderson. Upon graduating from UW Law School in 1974, he practiced insurance defense in Racine before moving to Madison for civil litigation and lobbying.
Cagle was in private practice for 17 years, doing civil trial work, mostly representing attorneys in malpractice and disciplinary matters.
In 1990, he joined the faculty at UW Law School. He served as director of what is now the Lawyering Skills Program and taught professional responsibility courses. After retirement in 2015, he was a mediator and of counsel with Hurley, Burish & Stanton in Madison. Cagle ran for state bar president-elect in 2014 and was sworn in as state bar president on June 24, 2015.
As state bar president, Cagle championed new initiatives in leadership development that boost the future of the legal profession — and spoke of the importance of working with the next generation of lawyers. He was instrumental in creating the State Bar’s G. Lane Ware Leadership Academy. Begun in 2016, the ongoing academy has provided more than 120 lawyers with the leadership skills, strategies and resources necessary for them to become effective leaders in their communities and the legal profession.
An endowed fund at UW Law School was created in Cagle’s memory. The Ralph M. Cagle Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to students enrolled at UW Law who have demonstrated academic merit or financial need, with a preference to support a student who is in the first generation of their family to attend a four-year college or university.
To contribute to the Ralph M. Cagle Memorial Scholarship fund, visit the webpage and simply type “Cagle.”
Walter Raushenbush, ‘University Citizen’
Walter Brandeis Raushenbush died Nov. 12, 2023, in McLean, Virginia; he was 95.
Raushenbush was born June 13, 1928, to parents Elizabeth Brandeis, daughter of Louis D. Brandeis, the U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and Paul A. Raushenbush, son of Walter Rauschenbusch, the pastor known for the Social Gospel. Walter was raised in Madison, where his parents were both esteemed economists responsible for the creation of the nation’s first Unemployment Compensation Bill.
Raushenbush returned to the University of Wisconsin to attend Law School, where he graduated first in his class with highest honors. Following his graduation in 1953, he joined the U.S. Air Force as a judge advocate, rising to the rank of colonel.
In 1958, Raushenbush joined the University of Wisconsin Law School faculty, where he taught for four decades until retiring in 1998. In addition to teaching, he authored four books on property law and became involved in law school admissions. He served as president of the Law School Admissions Council, where he helped develop the Law School Aptitude Test (LSAT) as well as served on the Real Property question drafting committee for the Multistate Bar Examination.
Like his parents, he used his expertise to improve social realities, including helping to write and lobby for fair housing legislation aimed at ending discrimination against Black home buyers in Wisconsin. He also chaired the university’s Human Rights Committee and addressed discrimination in campus housing as well as the Greek fraternity system, which had only recently lifted its “whites only” policies.
At his retirement, Raushenbush was described by the Law School as “a master teacher, a good colleague and a valued university citizen carrying on the tradition of his parents.”
In Memoriam of Alan Weisbard
Alan Jay Weisbard, University of Wisconsin–Madison emeritus professor of law, bioethics, Jewish studies and religious studies, died Sept. 11, 2023; he was 72.
Weisbard crafted a professional career applying the disciplines of law, ethics and religious studies to the worlds of scholarly research, public policy development and public service.
Following assignments working at both federal and state levels to develop law and public policy on a wide range of bioethical issues, he came to the University of Wisconsin’s Schools of Law and Medicine in 1990. In addition to teaching traditional parts of the curriculum, including first-year torts, he created innovative new courses on bioethics and the law; law, science and technology; children, parents and the state; caring for the dying patient; Jewish law and ethics in comparative perspective; and religion and medicine in historical, ethical and legal perspective. He also founded, chaired and taught at the Madison Lehrhaus, a community-wide institute for adult Jewish learning.
Prior to coming to UW–Madison, Weisbard held many positions. He spent a term as visiting lecturer in public and international affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, where he led a policy task force exploring legal, ethical and policy issues posed by new reproductive technologies.
From 1987 until early 1990, he served as executive director of the New Jersey Bioethics Commission. From 1980-82, he was assistant director for legal studies with the President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research in Washington, D.C. Weisbard taught at Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1982-87, was an elected fellow, former adjunct associate and participant in study groups at the Hastings Center, and served as senior fellow of the Park Ridge Center in Chicago.
Weisbard consulted with the National Institutes of Health, the former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and numerous other governmental and public interest groups at local, state and national levels. Early in his career, he served as a law clerk to Judge Irving L. Goldberg of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
1950s
Corliss Jensen ’52
Eldon Husted ’58
1960s
Donald Stone ’63
Bruce Ehlke ’68
David Anderson ’69
Donald Zillman ’69
1970s
James Sugar ’71
Dee Harris ’72
Edward Lloyd ’73
Ralph Cagle ’74
Daniel Dunn ’78
1980s
Kathleen Irwin ’80
Judith Stern ’82
Janelle Raupp ’83
Gregory Jansen ’84
John Heinen ’85
Steven Thompson ’87
George Goyke ’88
1990s
Diane Williams ’95
Eric Pollex ’99
2000s
Dawn Baum ’01