3/3/97

Claude R. Sowle, Ohio University's 16th president, died suddenly Sunday (March 2, 1997) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, while traveling to a law school that he was to inspect for the Accreditation Committee of the American Bar Association. Sowle was 68.

Sowle was president of Ohio University from 1969 to 1974. He served during the later phase of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, a period marked by massive campus demonstrations in Athens and across the country. Ohio University was forced to close early in the spring of 1970 because of rioting.

An advocate of openness in policy determination and administration, Sowle sought through public forums to enhance understanding and support of higher education locally and throughout the state. He also invited student participation in major areas of university governance, and was known for encouraging student self-reliance and self-responsibility. In a personal effort to increase communication, Sowle regularly held question-and-answer sessions in residence halls and held biweekly all-campus open forums.

During his presidency, an equal opportunities office was created on campus. Trustees also approved a statement of aims for the university, and the university affirmed its continued participation in varsity intercollegiate athletic programs.

Sowle left Ohio University to become a law professor at Ohio State University, where he taught from 1974 to 1982.

He received a B.S. in 1950 and a J.D. in 1956 from Northwestern University. Following a period of law practice in Chicago, Sowle served as a law professor and associate dean at Northwestern University until 1965, when he left to become dean and professor of law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law until 1969.

In 1982, he became dean of the University of Miami (Fla.) School of Law and served in that capacity until the summer of 1986. Sowle remained a professor of law at the University of Miami, where his teaching interests included torts and criminal law.

Loyola University, Chicago, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 1970, and the John Marshall Law School, Chicago, granted him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1996. He was a member of the American Law Institute.

Sowle chaired numerous site evaluation teams for the American Bar Association's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, the agency designated by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit law school programs. From 1990 to 1996, he served as a member of the ABA's Accreditation Committee, which he chaired in 1995-96. He also served on the ABA committee responsible for developing a new publication that provides consumer information about law schools.

From 1987 to 1994, he was a trustee of the Law School Admission Council, which develops and administers the Law School Admission Test. At the time of his death, he was council secretary.

Sowle was born in Springfield, Ill., in 1928. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. At Northwestern, he was editor-in-chief of the Northwestern University Law Review.

He is survived by Kathryn, his law school classmate and wife of 41 years, who is professor emerita at the University of Miami School of Law; their daughter, Leslie, an attorney with the Chicago law firm of Gardner, Carton, and Douglas; their son, Stephen, an assistant professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology; daughter-in-law, Susan; and a grandson, Andrew.

The cause of Sowle's death was not announced.