Paul Abraham Freund
Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Emeritus
Harvard University
February 16, 1908-February 5, 1992
Professor Paul Freund was one of the finest teachers I ever had. I took his course in
Constitutional Law in 1966-67. It was, as Anthony Lewis has said, "a transforming experience." Professor Freund was a most extraordinary man. He was humble, gentle,
brilliant, and deeply educated in the classics as well as the law.
As Professor Vorenberg noted, "I never knew anyone more considerate than Paul. He was incapable of meanness . . . ."
Professor Freund deserves, but yet does not have an official biographer. He left all of his papers (100 cartons) to the Law School. They are due to be catalogued in 2004 and are presently closed to researchers. However, his
students, collegues, and friends are encouraged to write down their memories, anecdotes, and appreciations of him before they are lost to history. Please forward them to:
David Warrington
Librarian for Special Collections
Harvard Law School Library
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone (617) 496-2115
warringt@law.harvard.edu
Dean Griswold said, "His tastes were always simple. There was no show or splurge about him. No one ever questioned his motivation, or his word. I never heard him speak unkindly about anyone. He never raised his voice, though his speech, in the classroom and in private conversation, was resonant, deliberate, and clearly understood. Yet, he was always shy and modest, though in no sense a recluse... In Hamlet's words:
He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
(Act I, Scene ii, line 187)"
"To those who knew Paul Freund, the personal aspects of the man shine radiantly through: the ambling gait, the soft but sparkling eyes, the gentle voice and warm smile, the occasional arched eyebrow, reflecting often skepticism but never dismay, or perhaps the head thrown back with both brows raised, in laughter. He was humble, gentle and quick of wit, and never shrill. Always accessible to those who sought the dependable wisdom of his counsel, he was the truest and most loyal of friends." John Davidson, HLS 1972
Hopefully I can give you more of a taste
of him here -- from my classes and from his published writings and speeches.
"Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues . . . In the end, the
crucial admonition is to know the difference between the sound of popguns and the crack of
doom, between weakness and flexibility, between belief and fanaticism."
Harvard Law Bulletin, Autumn, 1987, p. 20.
Professor Freund told of the student who came to Thomas Reed Powell at the end of the Constitutional law course and thanked him. "Professor Powell," he said, "when you began, the Constitution was so confusing to me. Now it is perfectly clear." Powell said, "Oh, dear."
"The Constitution was drawn up in strict secrecy. It was a damn near thing." Sept. 21, 1966
At a make-up class October 11, 1966, "Some of the class seems to have found better company elsewhere.... The Bible says, 'A remnant shall be saved.'"
"In 1895, the Supreme Court broke the Pullman strike, shot down the income tax law, and emasculated the Sherman Act. A very good year." November 23, 1966
Professor Freund loved Ring Lardner:
"Shut up," he explained.
Prohibition is better than no liquor at all.
He seized her and would have robbed her of her virtue had her timely acquiesence not prevented him.
Professor Freund thought Justice Brandeis' finest opinion was his concurrence in the freedom of speech case, Whitney v. California (1927) [Whitney was a neice of Justice Field], but he noted that much of it was lifted directly from Pericles' funeral speech. "Why he didn't say Pericles, I don't know. Perhaps he thought everyone would know,... or perhaps he thought no one would know." March 2, 1967
"Granted that little ray of sunshine, what hay do you make?" Id
"Which Commandment is it? I get it confused with the Amendments." April 27, 1967
On Establishment of Religion, "What about chaplains in the Army, are they unconstitutional Mr. P.?"
"Yes!"
"I'd always wondered." May 3, 1967
"The [school] prayers were of the sort 'To Whom It May Concern.'" Id
"Death plucks my ear and says,
'Live! I am coming.'"
Latin Poet, circa 500 A.D.
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