DAVIS, Kenneth Culp 1908-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born December 19, 1908, in Leeton, MO; died August 30, 2003, in San Diego, CA. Attorney, educator, and author. Davis was widely credited as the creator of the field of administrative law. He completed his B.A. at Whitman College in 1931 before receiving a law degree from Harvard in 1934. After briefly practicing law in Cleveland, he joined the faculty of West Virginia University in 1935. He then worked for the Department of Justice from 1939 to 1940, before returning to academia at the University of Texas. This was followed by positions at Harvard from 1948 to 1950, the University of Minnesota from 1950 to 1961, the University of Chicago from 1961 to 1976, and, finally, the University of San Diego, where he remained until his retirement in 1994. Davis's Administrative Law (1951) is considered the foundation for students and practitioners of this field of law and is still referred to today. It was followed by such publications as his four-volume Administrative Law Treatise (1958; revised edition, 1978-84), Administrative Law and Government (1960; second edition, 1975), and Administrative Law of the Eighties (1989). He was also the author of the influential monographs Discretionary Justice: A Preliminary Inquiry (1969) and Police Discretion (1975). Significantly, his legal expertise was relied on to help write the federal Administrative Procedure Act of 1946.

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PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2003, p. B11.