Professor Powell Finishes 42-Year Teaching Career

Thomas Reed Powell, Story Professor of Law, finished his constitutional law course and his 42-year teaching career at 1 p.m. yesterday. The 69-year-old expert on constitutional law intends to concentrate on "having a good time from here on in."

Powell came to Harvard in 1925 after 18 years of teaching political science and law at Columbia. He was appointed Langdell Professor of Law in 1928. Ten years later he received the Story Professorship.

The author of many books and magazine articles, Powell also served as special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States in 1936 and served on the President's Emergency Board on the National Railway Strike in 1941.

In 1945 he was admitted to the United States Supreme Court Bar.

The retiring professor is an expert on relations between the federal government and the states. His last book on the subject discussed the United States Supreme Court's jurisdiction over state police power.

Powell received his undergraduate training at the University of Vermont and his LL.B. from Harvard in 1904. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia.