Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Page 3
USC School of Law Plans Memorial for Professor Charles Whitebread
By a MetNews Staff Writer
USC School of Law will hold a memorial next month to remember veteran professor Charles Whitebread, who passed away last month at the age of 65 after a battle with lung cancer, the school has announced.
The event, “Remembering Charlie: A Champagne Reception and Tribute to honor the late Charles Whitebread,“ will take place Nov. 13 from 12-2:30 p.m. in the headquarters of university caterer Town & Gown on the school’s University Park Campus.
Whitebread, a 40-year veteran professor, taught law and undergraduate courses at USC and delivered review lectures for bar review course provider BAR/BRI. He grew up in Bethesda, Md., and attended Princeton University before graduating from Yale University Law School.
After law school, Whitebread briefly practiced law in Washington, D.C. before joining the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he taught for 13 years. He was awarded the school’s Distinguished Professor Award in 1972, and again in 1980.
Whitebread then moved to the University of Southern California Law School, and became the George T. and Harriet E. Pfleger Professor of Law. He was awarded the USC Student Bar Association’s Faculty Appreciation Award two times and the William A. Rutter Distinguished Teaching Prize in 2008.
The professor published numerous law review articles and over 10 books dealing with subjects ranging from criminal procedure to the non-medical use of drugs. Since 1982, he also published an annual booklet, Recent Decisions of the Supreme Court.
Whitebread was also one of the first law professors to concentrate on juvenile law and the need of the juvenile law system to afford the same rights to juveniles accused of offenses as afforded to adults, including the right to counsel.
A flood of tributes posted by Whitebread’s former students recalling the professor’s ubiquitous bow tie, dynamic lectures, sense of humor, and dedication to his pupils on the USC Law School website provide a testament to the professor’s popularity among his students and across the country.
Each fall Whitebread visited over 70 law schools to speak to students about exam-taking techniques and general advice about success in law school. He wrote a booklet, The Eight Secrets of Top Exam Performance in Law School, and served as a BAR/BRI lecturer for most of his career.
He also lectured on criminal law and procedure at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. for over 20 years, and traveled frequently around the country to lecture judges on criminal constitutional law.
Whitebread was also a financial benefactor of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center for many years, and regularly served as a keynote host and speaker at annual fundraisers.
He is survived by his long-term partner, John T. Golden, and their good friend, Michael S. Kelly, both of Santa Monica, and by his sister, Anne W. Tower, and his brother, Joseph B. Whitebread Jr.
The family requested that expressions of sympathy be in the form of contributions to the Charles H. Whitebread Scholarship at the USC Gould School of Law, or the Jeff Griffith Youth Center, c/o Friends of the Center.
Copyright 2008, Metropolitan News Company