By Robert Maddry
Chapel Hill, June 14—Merton L. Ferson, the newly elected dean of the school of law at the University of North Carolina, arrived here today for a week-end conference with President Chase, Acting Dean McIntosh and other University officials. He will make a study of the local situation with the view to having a good grasp of conditions when he comes to make his home here in August.
Mr. Ferson’s acceptance of the deanship removes an element of uncertainty in the law school that has caused University officials much concern the last few months. His selection by the board of trustees by an overwhelming vote was a great victory for President chase, who had picked him only after a careful investigation of possibilities both in and out of the state.
Until a few months ago, Mr. Ferson was dean of the George Washington university law school, of Washington, D.C. He is now on a year’s leave of absence which he is spending in teaching and study at the University of George Washington, resigning his deanship.
Mr. Ferson is in his forties. His law degree is from the University of Iowa law school in 1901, and he also holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree from that institution. He practiced in Iowa in 1901-02, studied and taught at the University of Iowa, practiced again in Iowa City until 1911, when he went to George Washington university as assistant professor of law; was promoted to full professorship in 1914 and to the deanship of the school in 1917.
The University considers itself extremely fortunate in having secured Mr. Ferson. He is regarded as one having an admirable combination of theory and practice. In presenting him to the trustees, President Chase described him as “a man of personal charm and attractiveness and of sound ideas, who would bring to the place the qualifications that I believe would give him a strong hold on the students, his colleagues in the faculty and on the bar of the state.”
President Chase made a visit to Washington last spring for the special purpose of finding out everything about Mr. Ferson’s qualifications. He talked with officials of George Washington university, with the dean of the college and other members of the faculty and with the chairman of the law school committee of the trustees.
The present dean of the George Washington university law school, William Van Vleck, assured President Chase that he strongly urged Mr. Ferson not to leave, though he knew his resignation would bring promotion to himself. Dr. Chase found that Mr. Ferson was regarded by the students as the best teacher in the faculty; was immensely popular with them, and with the faculty.
“His method of administration is rather by conference than by dictation,” President Chase says he learned. “He is tactful, had both faculty and students thoroughly with him, the firm support of the trustees, and finally determined to ask for leave and then resigned because the amount of routine administrative work in so large a school was leaving him with no free time to keep up his own professional growth. Everyone regretted his leaving. His judgment is sound. His co-operative methods of work sometimes take a little time to get results, but they have always succeeded in the end. Another remember of the faculty told me with enthusiasm that any law school in the United States would be lucky to get him in any capacity.”
From the front page of the Durham Morning Herald, Sunday, June 15, 1924
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