Law School Dean Louis Westerfiel Dies At 47 He Opened Doors For Minorities Times Picayune 08-25-1996 ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Louis Westerfield, dean of the University of Mississippi School of Law and former dean of the Loyola University School of Law, died Saturday of an apparent heart attack in New Orleans, where he was attending a judicial conference. He was 47. At Loyola and at Ole Miss, he was the first African-American dean in the schools' history. In 1994, when Mr. Westerfield assumed his post at Ole Miss, once a symbol of resistance to integration, he said, "I am well aware of the historical significance of the University of Mississippi selecting its first African- American dean. I appreciate those who are willing to give me this opportunity and the many others, black and white, who have labored through the years to allow us to progress to this point." As dean at Loyola from 1990 to 1994, Mr. Westerfield's priority was opening up the law school to more minority students and faculty without sacrificing the quality of legal education. He said last year that, when he arrived at Loyola, the law school had about 10 African-American students in an enrollment of nearly 800 and no African- Americans on its faculty of 30. When he left Loyola, there were more than 100 African-American law students and six teachers. He also was credited with adding a Hispanic teacher and two white women to the faculty. Mr. Westerfield brought change quickly - too quickly, said some faculty members, who complained that in his quest for diversity he had lowered standards at the school. "Some people say that we went too far too fast. And toward the end, they started to let me know," he said in 1995. "My overarching goal was to do what was best for Loyola University, and that's what I think I did." Other accomplishments during Mr. Westerfield's tenure at Loyola included increasing summer programs overseas, improving the student-faculty ratio, instituting a loan-forgiveness program and creating a law clinic for the homeless. Despite the criticism he received at Loyola, Mr. Westerfield said in 1995 that he had not veered from the course of diversification. When he arrived at Ole Miss, the fourth-oldest law school in the country, 30 of the 500 or more law students were African-American. That number doubled within a year. "The alumni have been very receptive to my message, which is that we're going to make the University of Mississippi a law school where all the citizens of our state can feel comfortable, and we're going to do it without sacrificing quality," he said. "I have had some experiences with racism here at Ole Miss, but I had experiences with racism in New Orleans," said Mr. Westerfield, who grew up in the Fischer public housing complex. "Racism has not been a major problem for me during my tenure here. It hasn't been a major problem in my life. I dealt with it here and I've dealt with it whenever it has reared its head." Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat said Saturday, "During his time with us, Dean Westerfield has worked diligently to strengthen the law school. He has served as a role model for thousands of African-Americans, as well as a respected colleague and friend to those of us in the university community." Mr. Westerfield was born in Kemper County, Miss., and moved to New Orleans when he was 11. "Even though I spent my early years in Mississippi, I'm a Louisianian," he said in 1994. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1971 from Southern University at New Orleans, which presented him with an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 1992; a juris doctor degree in 1974 from Loyola's law school; and a master of law degree in 1980 from Columbia University Law School. He began his legal career in 1974 as an assistant district attorney in New Orleans, then became assistant professor of law and director of the law clinic at the Southern University Law Center in 1975. He joined Loyola's law faculty in 1978 as the second African-American faculty member and moved to Ole Miss as the first tenured African-American law professor in 1983. He left in 1986 to become the dean at North Carolina Central University in Durham and then dean at Loyola in 1990. Soon after he became dean at Ole Miss, members of the American Bar Association's law student division's 5th and 13th circuits created the Louis Westerfield Award for the Promotion of Diversity and Excellence in Legal Education, and made him its first recipient. In 1995, Loyola's Black Student Union chose him to receive its annual Distinguished African-American Alumnus of the Year Award. The group surprised him with the honor after his keynote address at its annual scholarship gala. Mr. Westerfield was on the boards of the Louisiana Bar Foundation, the Bureau of Governmental Research, the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, the Children's Bureau and the Southern University at New Orleans Foundation. He was named an Outstanding Young Man in America by the U.S. Jaycees. His articles appeared in the Southern University Law Review, Loyola Law Review and Mississippi Law Journal. His book, "Louisiana Evidence," was published in 1983; a second edition came out in 1992. He was a former ad hoc judge on the state 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal in Shreveport, and was given an honorary degree by Dillard University. Survivors include his wife, Gelounder Brumfield Westerfield; two sons, Anthony and Anson; and a daughter, Anika. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.