Vern Countryman
| Vern Countryman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 13, 1917 Roundup, Montana |
| Died | May 2, 1999 (age 81) Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Education |
University of Washington B.A University of Washington School of Law LL.B. |
| Occupation | Royall Professor of Law |
| Employer | Harvard Law School |
| Known for | Bankruptcy expert; Opposed McCarthyism |
Vernon ("Vern") Countryman (May 13, 1917 – May 2, 1999), was a professor at Harvard Law School and social critic who was an expert on bankruptcy and commercial law.
Vern Countryman was born in Roundup, Montana. His father, Alexander Countryman, was the under sheriff of Musselshell County and his mother, Carrie Harriman, a homemaker. The family moved to Longview, Washington, where Vern excelled at high school athletics and was class president both his junior and senior years.
In 1939, he was graduated with a B.A. in political science from the University of Washington and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. In 1942, he graduated from the University of Washington Law School, where he was president of the Washington Law Review editorial board.
On November 9, 1940, he married Vera Marie Pound (July 19, 1917 – December 2, 1994), a daughter of former Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound (October 27, 1870 – June 30, 1964), with whom he had two daughters: Debra Green and Kay Briggs.
Countryman worked as an attorney with the National Labor Relations Board in Seattle before serving as a clerk from 1942 to 1943 for Justice William O. Douglas (October 16, 1898 – January 19, 1980) of the U.S. Supreme Court. He then served with the Army Air Force in Italy during World War II, rising to First Lieutenant. After his discharge in 1946, he served as Assistant Attorney General of Washington State and, from 1946 to 1947, as an instructor at the University of Washington Law School.
In 1947-48, Countryman was a graduate student at Yale Law School before joining the faculty. He was an assistant professor of law from 1948 to 1950 and an associate professor from 1950 to 1955.
Countryman was a prominent bankruptcy scholar, following in the footsteps of Wesley Sturges (November 3, 1893-November 1962) and his mentor, William O. Douglas. His casebook with J. William Moore, Debtors' and Creditors' Rights: Cases and Materials, which was first published in 1947 and went through four editions by 1975, "took a novel approach to the subject, by providing the evolution of both the non-bankruptcy and bankruptcy systems of creditors’ remedies, thereby facilitating a comparative evaluation of their merits."
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