Fred Rodell collection

Fred Rodell (1907-1980) was a law professor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Haverford College in 1926 and received his law degree from Yale University in 1931. After attending law school, Rodell worked as a special legal advisor to Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania until 1933, when he joined the faculty of the Yale Law School. He became a full professor in 1939 and remained at Yale until 1973, when he retired and received an honorary LL.D. from Haverford. During his career, Rodell maintained a large number of other activities, such as a feature writer for the Chicago Times (1940), Director of Cooperative Consumers, Inc. in New Haven, Connecticut (1941-1945), contributing editor for Progressive magazine (1943-?), working at the American Civil Liberties Union, and writing a great deal of legal journalism. Rodell was the author of Fifty-five Men: the Story of the Constitution (1936); Woe Unto You Lawyers (1939); Nine Men: a Political History of the Supreme Court from 1870 to 1955 (1955); as well as many articles.

Biographical information from Directory of American Scholars, sixth edition, vol. IV (New York: Bowker Co., 1974) and Charles Alan Wright, “Goodbye to Fred Rodell,” 89 Yale L.J. 1455 (New Haven: Yale Law Journal Co., Inc., 1980).