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Frederick Green '89
Professor, College of Law
Professor Green time at the University of Illinois College of Law spanned over thirty plus years. To honor his illustrious service to the university, the College of Law holds an annual moot court competition in his name – The Frederick Green Moot Court CompetitionBrother Green was also the father of the Honorable Fred Green, a distinguished member of the bar and bench, decorated veteran, and champion Illini athlete.
Ann Ribstein of the Jenner Law Library discovered in "Who Was Who in America" vol. 3 the following data on his life:
He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Feb. 28, 1868 and took three degrees at Harvard, A.B. in 1889, A.M. in 1893, and LL.B., 1893. Brother Green married Lois Shepherd, Sept. 7, 1920 and they had two children-Cornelia and Frederick Shepherd. He practiced in New York City 1893-1900 and became professor of law at the University of Illinois in September 1904. The Greens made their home at 805 W. Green St., Urbana. He passed away July 27, 1956 and is buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Brother Green's time at Illinois is also documented in the book Law in the Grand Manner, 1897-1967 – A Popular History of the College of Law at the University of Illinois
"Frederick Green retired from the faculty in 1936 after thirty-two years of service to Illinois, although he was called back for another year of teaching in 1938-39. He was counselor to four deans, and his example set the standard for academics at the College soon after its founding. A man of great dignity and reserve, he did not marry until he was fifty-four. He was beloved by the students for the benevolent interest he took in them, often providing lemonade during the hot June days of exam week. An oil portrait was dedicated in his honor and now hangs in the Law Building as a silent exhortation to aspiring advocates in the Frederick Green Moot Court Competition, which was named for him when he retired."
The Law School where he finished his career was quite different from the one he started at near the turn of the century. According to Law in the Grand Mannerthe college took over the old chemistry building in 1903 and called it home for the next twenty-four years. Brother Green remarked: And there the Law School lived for some years, if not precisely in the odor of sanctity, very decidedly in the odor of chamistry. But the smells that came from the chemicals that soaked the floors were mitigated, alleviated, and at times completely overwhelmed by the smells that came from the taxidermist's shop in the basement. So while strange beasts and rare birds were manufactured in the basement, the upper stories of the building were engaged in producing and sending forth a multitude of lawyers.
Law in the Grand Manner, 1897-1967 – A Popular History of the College of Law at the University of Illinois continues at length about Professor Green's introduction to central Illinois on page fifteen:
"The circumstances of his arrival in Urbana might have frightened a lesser man away, according to his later description:
'Some piece of literature which I gut with my appointment said that every member of the faculty was expected to be at the University on September I and to stay until July 1, and not to leave town without permission. So I came at the stated time and the first thing I learned about the University was that you couldn't take it at its word. The campus was empty. So was the Law Building. I went to the Library and as that was locked up, climbed to the upper floor where the Dean of Men had his office in the East end, the President in the middle and the Registrar and Bursar in die West end where the safe is still. I asked where the clerk in the Registrar's Office where California Street was, but he said I had no right to come into the room because it was between twelve and one o'clock and out of office hours, but if I would come back at one o'clock he would tell me.' "
"Frederick Green fortunately had the wit and wisdom to perceive the situation in its proper perspective. In the following description of the provincial community he captures the true flavor of life in those early years at the University:
'Dr. Draper had not prepared me for what was a state of mind then widely prevalent which was manifested by a real, or sometimes a professed, devotion to ultra-puritan standards, that far outdid my boyhood recollections of New England, combined with a conscious effort at dignity. . . . No golf or tennis was allowed on Sunday, no library or museum was open Sunday afternoon, and though some members of the faculty had to have access lo university buildings on Sunday to feed experimental white mice or keep apparatus running, they were urged not to click typewriters so loud that they could be heard on the outside. Under the pretence of danger from fire, smoking was prohibited in faculty offices, and under pretence of danger to growing trees, the forestry was closed up after dark. . . . The campus was treated as a possession of the board of trustees which students and teachers were required to resort to periodically, but which they were given every incentive to leave as soon as they could. Even for the few minutes between classes students were forced to banish themselves to the nearest curb for a smoke…
In 1904 Champaign-Urbana was said to have 17,000 people, nine churches, twenty-eight saloons, and twenty-odd miles of brick paved streets. Green and Wright Streets were paved. Mathews Street was being paved. John Street was mud mitigated by ashes, with a streetcar track down the middle, resting on cross tics that stuck out of the mud and had to be bumped over by the two-horse hacks, in which socially prominent students look their girls to dances. I have been told that when the mud was very bad it took four horses to pull a hack through it. And I remember reading in the local paper of a boy that got stuck in the mud while walking to school a short way outside of town, and they had to hitch a mule to him to pull him out.
… To get a book, a haircut, or a soda, you must go to Urbana or Champaign. . . . The two towns literally boasted four automobiles. Morgan Brooks was the only faculty man who had one. . . . Saturday afternoon … tethered to racks around the court house square were lines of horses and mules hitched to mud-bespattered vehicles that had brought families from the farms into town for their weekly shopping and sight-seeing. Such of the men as weren't in saloons, lined up on the curb and spat into the gutter, while the women and children stood around in silence looking each other over and waiting for the men to be ready to go home.’ ”
“… Professor Green himself had two rooms costing $15 a month, and ate in the most fashionable boarding house in Urbana for four dollars a week., while being paid $2,000 salary for the school year. ‘Those were the halcyon days of law teaching,’ he reminisced. ‘Only two or three law reviews to be read, and none to edit … a student body half eager to learn, the other half immune to learning, and all alike invariably passing the bar examination with colors flying.’ ” |
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Fred H. Rankin '87
Assistant Dean, College of Agriculture, and Superintendent for the Agricultural Extension Service
According to Chris Prom, Assistant University Archivist at the University of Illinois, Dean Rankin's biographical file notes:
He was born in 1865, He attended Illinois College in Jacksonville, and left in 1887 but did not graduate. He was asst. dean of the college of agriculture, a member of the Presbyterian Church, a 33rd degree Mason, and member of Red Cross of Constantine, Kiwanis, Psi Upsilon, Alpha Gamma Rho and Alpha Zeta fraternities. He died on July 13, 1958, in Winter Haven Florida, where he owned a citrus grove after his retirement. He married Bertha M. Harper, who was an assistant to the dean of the college of law at the University. She was a graduate of the University (1907) He was hired at the University as a Superintendent for the Agricultural Extension service in 1905. |
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Pat Patterson '80
Controller for the University of Illinois System
One Psi U playing a major role at the U of I is Brother Pat Patterson '80. Of his career and family life, he writes:
In August 2006, I was named as Controller for the University of Illinois. In this role, I am now responsible for accounting, financial reporting, payroll and related functions for the 3 UI campuses (UIUC, UIC and UIS). Prior to this, I was Assistant to the Head and Director of Budget & Resource Planning for the Department of Computer Science at UIUC (10 years), Prior to that, I spent 14 years with 7-Eleven, Inc. in various accounting management roles. Prior to that, I spent 2 years in public accounting (Ernst & Young).
[His wife] Linda and I live in Urbana. We have 3 boys: Patrick Jr, Stephen and John. My brother Mike (Omicron ’79) lives in Los Angeles and directs television commercials. |
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Scott Olson '93
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
According to his departmental biography:
Scott M. Olson holds a B.S. (University of Illinois 1993), M.S. (University of Illinois 1995), and Ph.D. (University of Illinois 2001), all in civil engineering. From 1995 through 1997, Scott worked in private practice for Woodward-Clyde Consultants. After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Olson returned to private practice with URS Corporation and also taught geotechnical earthquake engineering courses at the University of Missouri-Rolla. Scott joined the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois in August 2004.
Dr. Olson currently teaches an undergraduate course in geotechnical engineering and a graduate course on insitu testing and field measurements. His research interests include: liquefaction of level and sloping ground, paleoseismology and paleoliquefaction, soft ground engineering, in situ testing, geosynthetics, and instrumentation.
He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Canadian Geotechnical Society, and the North American Geosynthetics Society. Dr. Olson previously was a member of the governor-appointed Missouri Seismic Safety Commission and currently serves on a review board for the National Highway Cooperative Research Program. Dr. Olson is a licensed professional engineer and continues to participate in consulting projects with industry.
Dr. Olson has received several honors and awards for his research, practice-related, and teaching accomplishments. In 2003, the Canadian Geotechnical Society awarded Scott the R.M. Quigley Award for the best paper in the 2002 Canadian Geotechnical Journal. In 2004, the American Society of Civil Engineers awarded Scott the Arthur Casagrande Award for his work on the residual strength of liquefied soils. The Casagrande Award was established to provide professional development opportunities for outstanding, young (under 35) practitioners, researchers, and teachers of geotechnical engineering. Dr. Olson was the first practicioner to receive this award. |
