News

Pro-Palestine Encampment Represents First Major Test for Harvard President Alan Garber

News

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Condemns Antisemitism at U.S. Colleges Amid Encampment at Harvard

News

‘A Joke’: Nikole Hannah-Jones Says Harvard Should Spend More on Legacy of Slavery Initiative

News

Massachusetts ACLU Demands Harvard Reinstate PSC in Letter

News

LIVE UPDATES: Pro-Palestine Protesters Begin Encampment in Harvard Yard

Blind Law Student Receives Brandeis Fellowship; Wife Serves as His Eyes

Jacobus tenBroek, Authority on Constitutional Law, Can Read Only Braille

By The UNITED Press)

BERKELEY, Cal--When Jacobus ten Brooke, 27, brilliant, blind law graduate of the University of California, goes to Harvard this fall on one of the much-coveted Brandeis research fellowships, he will take with him "his eyes."

These eyes are those of his wife. He has never soon a law book, except through Braille transcriptions, but has become an authority on constitutional law. He was accorded the Brandeis fellowship by invitation and not by application in a nationwide competition.

The 1939-40 fellowship at Harvard carries with it a stipend of $2,300 in addition to tuition and it will advance the young Berkeley family one step further toward the goal set by the husband.

TenBroek was blinded at the are of 7 when an arrow shot by a playmate penetrated his eye. The accident did not deter him from a scholastic and legal career in which he has won high honors.

Two years ago he married Hazel Feldheim of Oakland, a former student of the University of California and who became "his eyes."

The latest honor which the blind scholar attained was the publication in the California Law Review of a series of articles on Constitutional Law. In his younger days, tenBroek had been student editor of this publication.

He was graduated from the University of California in 1934 with highest honors in political science. He received a Master's degree the next year and his Jurisprudence degree the following year.

For the past two years he has been a teaching assistant in the department of political science at the university. During his educational career tenBroek won membership in Phi Beta Kappa; Delta Sigma Rho, debating honor society; Pal Sigma Alpha, political science honor society; Order of the Colf, legal honor body, and the Golden Bear and Winged Helmet honor societies.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

Tags