Edward Hirsch Levi

Born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 26, 1911. He received his Ph.B. degree from the University of Chicago in 1932 and his J.D. degree there in 1935. He received his J.S.D. degree in 1938 from Yale University, where he had been a Sterling fellow in 1935 and 1936. Levi was named assistant professor of law at the University of Chicago in 1936, the year he was admitted to the Illinois bar. From 1940 to 1945 he took a leave of absence from the university to be a special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States. He served in the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, was head of the Consent Decree Section and then first assistant in 1943 and 1945. Levi was first assistant in the Department's War Division for eight months in 1943. In 1944 he was Chairman of the Interdepartmental Committee on Monopolies and Cartels. He returned to the University of Chicago Law School in 1945 as a professor, was named dean of the law school in 1950, provost of the university in 1962, and appointed its president on November 14, 1968. During those years Levi also served the Federal Government as chief counsel to the Subcommittee on Monopoly Power of the House Judiciary Committee in 1950, and as a member of the White House Central Group on Domestic Affairs in 1964 and the White House Task Force on Education in 1966 and 1967. In addition, he was a member of the President's Task Force on Priorities in Higher Education in 1969 and 1970. He also was a member of the National Commission on Productivity and the National Council on the Humanities. On February 7, 1975, President Ford appointed him Attorney General of the United States. He returned to teaching at the University of Chicago Law School in 1977. Levi died March 7, 2000 in Chicago, Illinois.