Claude Carr, a retired professor from The John Marshall Law School, died Jan. 4, 2018. He was 87.
“Claude was one of the best teachers I ever knew, and one of the best friends one could have,” former John Marshall Dean John E. Corkery said. “He developed a bond with his students so that even though he was demanding in the classroom, his students knew teaching them the law was his primary goal and they respected, and I might even say loved him, for it.”
Carr joined John Marshall’s faculty in 1967 and taught Property, Criminal Law, Estates & Trusts, and Taxation of Estates and Trusts. Before joining the faculty, he practiced law at MacLeish, Spray, Price & Underwood and in the trust department at The National Boulevard Bank of Chicago.
“For those of us who joined the John Marshall faculty in the 1970s, Claude Carr was our mentor par excellence,” John Marshall Professor Ann Lousin said. “Nobody spent as much time helping us and helping us learn how to teach as Claude did. He regularly took the new faculty out to lunch, visited our classes, gave us helpful hints and was our all-around ‘big brother’.”
While at John Marshall, Carr was named “Teacher of the Year” five times in his 32-year career, a distinction consistent with the hundreds of personal stories of encouragement and perseverance told by graduates who took his courses. In the words of one alumnus, “He truly has made a difference in the lives of a near-countless number of us who are out here doing battle every day.”
“Claude is the one John Marshall professor I have been most asked about in my dealings with alumni,” Corkery said. “A light has gone out and Claude is now part of the history of John Marshall. I’m sure those who had Claude as a teacher will miss him and realize what a benefit it was to have had him as a teacher.”
In 1999, Carr established the Claude E. Carr Scholarship to support second- and third-year students who demonstrate academic achievement, integrity, leadership and financial need. By the time of his retirement a few months later, the law school had already received commitments totaling $450,000 to support the scholarship, further illustrating Carr’s legacy.
Carr earned his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University in 1952 before serving as a lieutenant (junior grade) in the U.S. Navy from 1952–1954. He returned to Northwestern University School of Law to complete his LL.B. in 1956.
