Samuel Williston
| Samuel Williston | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 24, 1861 Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Died | February 18, 1963 (aged 101) Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Legal studies |
| Institutions | Harvard Law School |
| Alma mater | Harvard College |
| Notable students | Felix Frankfurter, Learned Hand |
| Known for | Treatise urging contractual formalism |
Samuel Williston (September 24, 1861 – February 18, 1963) was an American lawyer and law professor who authored an influential treatise on contracts.
Williston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts to a family prosperous from the mercantile trade but whose fortunes declined during his youth, which he recalled, "served as a spur to endeavor."
He was graduated from Harvard College in 1882 and worked for three years as a survey assistant for a railroad and teaching at a boarding school. An aunt's bequest enabled him to enroll in Harvard Law School, where he thrived. He was an editor of the first volume of the Harvard Law Review, and in 1888 he graduated first in his class with LLB and MA degrees.
On September 12, 1889, he married Mary Fairlie Wellman. Mary and Samuel Williston had two daughters: Dorothea Lewis Williston (Mrs. Murray F. Hall), and Margaret Fairlie Williston (Mrs. Chester B. McLaughlin, Jr.). His wife, Mary, died in 1929.
Early in Williston's career, from 1888 to 1889 he worked as the private secretary to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray. In the summer of 1889, he helped to collate laws from various U.S. states in order to help formulate the state constitutions of North Dakota and South Dakota.
From 1895 to 1938, Williston was a law professor at Harvard Law School, and in 1910, he briefly served as acting dean. In 1903, he was named Weld Professor and, in 1919, was named to the Dane Professorship at Harvard. Students described him as "a gentle, good-humored teacher who charmed his classes with hypothetical cases involving his horse, Dobbin, and who regularly invited students to dine with his family on Sundays," and "a master of the Socratic method."
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