Comments on: A Memory of Professor Farnsworth

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 18:09:54 +0000

For those that are interested, here is the NYT obit: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/06/obituaries/06farnsworth.html?oref=login

By: Christian Johnson

Christian Johnson — Sun, 06 Feb 2005 05:35:34 +0000

Professor Farnsworth was the finest professor that I had in law school. I have modeled my law school teaching style after how he taught my commercial law class. He was a gifted and extraordinary teacher, scholar and author. The law has lost some of its luster with his passing. I hope that he and Brigham become acquainted.

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 23:00:57 +0000

Rob: Good to know the tradition continued. I wonder what he led out with when there were no BYU grads in the class?

Justin B.: I’m pretty sure that’s the quote. Thanks for tracking it down.

Fry: EAF was much better looking than the cat you’re thinking of.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 22:01:20 +0000

Greg, just wanted to let you know that he did the same thing to me last year, in what was his last Contracts class. It definitely caught me off guard, but it was a pleasant surprise.

By: Nate Oman

Nate Oman — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 21:51:45 +0000

john: Actually my civ pro prof was friendly and well adjusted human being (not!) compared to my corps professor, who was very aged, extremely cranky, and mostly deaf. His preferred pedagogy was to shout questions at a single student in rapid succession, demanding that the student shout back answers (“Speak up! I can’t hear you!”), until the professor had the student literally shouting the wrong answers. At which point he would growl out his displeasure….

By: john fowles

john fowles — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 20:59:35 +0000

Nate, good thing you paid–how much?–for that enlightening experience. When BYU Law Professors did something like that, they were only pretending, and mocking the Harvard profs like the one you described.

By: Justin B.

Justin B. — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 20:52:25 +0000

Sounds a bit like what he said on April 7, 1862 (JD 10:97):

“We are among the people of this world; our bodies are of the earth, and our spirits are like the spirits of other people and from the same source, only we are trying to establish the kingdom of God on earth, to introduce righteousness, and prepare the people for the reign of Jesus Christ on the earth. One man says, ‘I have agreed to do thus and so.’ Then go and do it. Fulfill your contracts and sacredly keep your word.”

The last sentence above is also quoted in Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 232.

By: Fry

Fry — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 12:51:47 +0000

Was this guy any relation to Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, oldest living member of the Academy of Professors and owner of Planet Express?

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 07:30:33 +0000

Greg: First day of class — wow. Farnsworth himself — double wow. And a Brigham Young contracts quote, cited to you in class? Triple wow. I guess when you’ve got BYU on your transcript, you can run but you can’t hide.

By: Nate Oman

Nate Oman — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 02:28:56 +0000

Greg: I am sad to hear about the death of Farnesworth. He was a great contracts scholar, and I read or refer to his treatise (I own a copy of the one volume version) regularlly.

Since we are telling 1L stories here is mine. My very first class in law school — literally on the morning of the first day — was civil procedure. Our professor was a half an hour late and by the time he came storming into the room students were getting ready to leave. He came scowling to the front of the class (he scowled alot), and glared the class into silence. They he turned to me (assigned seating, I was on the second row) and literally shouted: “Oman, what is diversity jurisdiction?!”

He, unfortunately, did not give any hints…