Vern Countryman

Vern Countryman, Royall Professor of Law Emeritus at the Law School, died Sunday, May 2, at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, of heart failure. He was 81 and a resident of Cambridge.

Countryman was a specialist in commercial law, bankruptcy law and reform, secured transactions law, and civil liberties.

"For many years, Vern Countryman was the dominant presence in commercial law at Harvard Law School," said Law School Dean Robert Clark. "Generations of graduates were shaped by his teaching, and many members of the staff benefited from his kindness. Those of us who knew him will miss him very much."

Countryman was born in Roundup, Mont., on May 13, 1917.

He received a B.A. in political science in 1939 from the University of Washington, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an LL.B. in 1942 from the University of Washington School of Law.

It was at the height of the McCarthy era when Countryman, a fierce opponent of McCarthyism, left Yale, where he had been teaching. He practiced as a partner with Shea, Greenman and Gardner in Washington, D.C., from 1955 to 1959 before becoming dean and professor of the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1959. He served in those capacities until 1964.

It was at that time that Harvard Law School Dean Erwin Griswold, a noted opponent of McCarthyism, brought Countryman back to the Ivy League. Needing a bankruptcy specialist for his faculty, Griswold supported Countryman's appointment at Harvard. After holding a visiting professorship in 1963, Countryman was named Professor of Law at Harvard Law School in 1964. The chain-smoking, crew-cutted Countryman was a demanding teacher. " 'Stern Vern' worked hard and believed others should work hard," remarked his colleague, Professor Andrew Kaufman.

Countryman's publications included The Lawyer in Modern Society (Little, Brown, 1976) with Ted Finman and Theodore J. Schneyer; Commercial Law (Little, Brown, 1982) with Andrew Kaufman and Zipporah Wiseman; Debtors' and Creditors' Rights (Bender, 1951) with James William Moore; and several books concerning Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, including The Judicial Record of Justice William O. Douglas (Harvard University Press, 1974).

In 1973 Countryman was appointed the Royall Professor of Law, the oldest professorship at the Law School. He became Royall Professor of Law Emeritus in 1987.

He was the husband of the late Vera Pound (a relative of former Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound). He leaves three brothers, Roy of Bozeman, Mont., Robert of Seattle, and Charles of Yakima, Wash.; two daughters, Debra Green of Freestone, Calif., and Kay Briggs of Lafayette, Calif.; and two grandchildren, Megan Briggs and Teyo Green.