Henry Abraham
Encyclopedia
Henry J. Abraham, Ph.D., James Hart Professor of Government Emeritus at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

, is one of the foremost scholars on the judiciary and constitutional law in the United States. He is the author of 13 books, most in multiple editions, and more than 100 articles on the U.S. Supreme Court, judicial appointments, judicial process, and civil rights and liberties.

Immigration to U.S.; War Service

In 1937, Abraham immigrated alone from Germany to the United States during the rise of the Nazi regime. His parents, Liesel Dreyfuss Abraham and Fred Abraham, and brother Otto followed in 1939. The family settled in Pittsburgh, PA. He served in World War II as an enlisted man and officer in U.S. Army Intelligence on duty in Western and Central Europe. He received two Battle Stars and the Commendation Medal. When the war ended in the European Theater, Abraham, who is fluent in German, French, and English, and adequate in Danish, served in a military unit that gathered evidence for use in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....

.

Education

In 1948 Abraham graduated from Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...

 in Ohio with a bachelor’s degree with highest honors in political science, first in his class, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his M.A. in public law and government from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in 1949, and he received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 in 1952, where he began his teaching career. Abraham served as a Kenyon College
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...

 Trustee for six years (1987-1993.)

Career

After serving in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Political Science for 23 years (1943–1972), Abraham became a chaired professor in the Department of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia in 1972. A pioneer in comparative judicial studies, he served as a Fulbright Scholar in Denmark at the Universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, where he was instrumental in establishing the country's first Department of Political Science. He lectured throughout the world under U.S.I.A. auspices. He retired from full-time teaching in 1997 after nearly a half-century in the classroom, but he continues to teach in lifelong learning programs in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Notable Students

During the span of his career, Abraham has taught many notable students, including U.S. Senator Arlen Specter
Arlen Specter
Arlen Specter is a former United States Senator from Pennsylvania. Specter is a Democrat, but was a Republican from 1965 until switching to the Democratic Party in 2009...

 (D.-Penn.); Judge Edward Roy Becker
Edward Roy Becker
For the Distinguished Service Cross recipient, see Edward Becker .Edward Roy Becker was a United States federal judge on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit....

, U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals; Judge Susan J. Dlott
Susan J. Dlott
Susan J. Dlott is a United States federal judge.Born in Dayton, Ohio, Dlott received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970 and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1973...

, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court in Ohio; Judge John Roll, U.S. District Court in Arizona; Judge Charles R. Weiner
Charles R. Weiner
Charles R. Weiner was a United States federal judge and former member of the Pennsylvania Senate.Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Weiner was in the United States Navy during World War II, from 1941 to 1945. He thereafter received an A.B. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1947, an LL.B....

, U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania; Judge Mark S. Davis, U.S. District Court in Virginia; Judge Stefan R. Underhill
Stefan R. Underhill
Stefan R. Underhill is a Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. Born in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1956, after earning a B.A. in 1978 from the University of Virginia and a B.A. from Oxford University, he received a J.D. from Yale Law School, after which he...

, U.S. District Court in Connecticut; Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr.
Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr.
Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr. was a Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court and the first African-American Chief Justice of that Court, serving two four-year terms from February 1, 2003 to January 31, 2011. He was succeeded by the current Chief Justice, Cynthia D. Kinser...

, Virginia Supreme Court; Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy
Elizabeth B. Lacy
Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy is a Virginia jurist and was the first woman named to the Virginia State Corporation Commission and subsequently was the first woman named to be a Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia. Lacy is a graduate of St. Mary's College at Notre Dame and the University of Texas...

, Virginia Supreme Court; Chief Justice Ruth McGregor, Arizona Supreme Court; Author and Professor Larry J. Sabato
Larry Sabato
Larry Joseph Sabato is an American political scientist and analyst. He is the Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, and director of its Center for Politics. He founded Sabato's Crystal Ball, an online newsletter and website that provides free political analysis and...

; Author and Professor Barbara A. Perry
Barbara A. Perry
Dr. Barbara A. Perry, a U.S. Supreme Court and presidency expert, as well as a biographer of the Kennedys, is a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center and is the former Carter Glass Professor of Government and founding director of the Center for Civic Renewal at Sweet Briar...

; Author and Professor David A. Yalof
David Yalof
David Alistair Yalof is an American academic. He is currently an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut, where he specializes in constitutional law, judicial politics and executive branch politics.-Education:...

; Author and Professor John Dinan; Author and Professor Walter Markham; Attorney and PA State Rep. Mark B. Cohen
Mark B. Cohen
Mark B. Cohen is a Democratic politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Succeeding Eugene Gelfand, he has represented Pennsylvania House of Representatives, District 202 in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives since June 10, 1974, making him the most senior member in the Pennsylvania...

; David Brown, Mayor of Charlottesville, VA; Attorney Robert Gelfman; Attorney J. Reuben Clark
J. Reuben Clark
Joshua Reuben Clark, Jr. was an American attorney, civil servant, and a prominent leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Born in Grantsville, Utah Territory, Clark was a prominent attorney in the Department of State, and Under Secretary of State for US president Calvin Coolidge...

; Attorney Peter Dodson; Attorney David Gogal; Attorney and Media Executive Steven Fadem; Author and Law Professor Vincent M. Bonventre; Author and Professor Stanley C. Brubaker; Author and Professor Gary L. McDowell; Author and Professor William F. Connelly; Author and Professor James Staab; Author and Professor Mary Kweit; Author and Professor Robert Kweit; Author and Professor David Cingranelli
David Cingranelli
David Cingranelli is a professor of Political Science at Binghamton University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977.-Publications:*Ethics and American Foreign Policy Toward the Third World...

; Author and Professor F. Graham Lee; Author and Professor James J. Magee; Author and Professor Bruce Allen Murphy;
Bruce Allen Murphy
Bruce Allen Murphy, Ph.D., is a judicial biographer and scholar of American Constitutional law and politics. He is the Fred Morgan Kirby Professor of Civil Rights at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, a position he has held since 1998...

 Author and Professor Robert Sitkoff
Robert Sitkoff
Robert H. Sitkoff is the John L. Gray Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he is the only faculty member specializing in trusts and estates . He previously served as professor of law at New York University School of Law and Northwestern University School of Law , where he joined at age...

; Businessman Victor Barnett; Clerk Jan Horbaly, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; Author John Aloysius Farrell, the biographer of Clarence Darrow; and many other distinguished judges, professors, authors, business leaders, and attorneys. Senator Specter and Judge Becker were members of the University of Pennsylvania debate team that Abraham coached.

Books

Abraham's 13 books include The Judicial Process: An Introductory Analysis of the Courts of the United States, England, and France, 7th ed.; Freedom and the Court: Civil Rights and Liberties in the United States, 8th ed., with Barbara A. Perry
Barbara A. Perry
Dr. Barbara A. Perry, a U.S. Supreme Court and presidency expert, as well as a biographer of the Kennedys, is a Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center and is the former Carter Glass Professor of Government and founding director of the Center for Civic Renewal at Sweet Briar...

; Justices, Presidents, Senators: A History of U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Bush II, 5th ed., and The Judiciary: The Supreme Court in the Governmental Process, 10th ed.

Awards and honors

In 1983 Abraham was awarded the University of Virginia’s most prestigious recognition, the Thomas Jefferson Award, and in 1993 he received the First Lifetime Achievement Award of the Organized Section on Law and Courts of the American Political Science Association. The Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....

 (DAR) awarded him their 2007 Annual Award for Americanism at their national headquarters, Constitution Hall, in Washington, D.C. Other awards include the recipient of the first $1,000 award for "Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching," University of Pennsylvania, 1959; Phi Beta Kappa National Vistiting Scholar, 1970–1971; "IMP" Society, Outstanding Contribution to the University Community Award for 1978, University of Virginia; "Z" Society, Distinguished Faculty Award for 1978, the University of Virginia; the 1983 Distinguished Service Award, Virginia Social Science Association; and the 1986 University of Virginia Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award. Two scholarships were given in Abraham's name at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and its Department of Political Science. He is listed in Who's Who in the World, and Who's Who in America, and others.

In his honor, Professor Abraham’s former students and colleagues established the Abraham Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Virginia School of Law
University of Virginia School of Law
The University of Virginia School of Law was founded in Charlottesville in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as one of the original subjects taught at his "academical village," the University of Virginia. The law school maintains an enrollment of approximately 1,100 students in its initial degree program...

 in 1997 under the auspices of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression
Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression
The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression is an independently funded organization associated with the University of Virginia and dedicated to the protection of freedom of speech. Founded in 1989 and headed by former UVA president Robert M...

.

Abraham Lecturers have included Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court; Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr.
Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr.
Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr. was a Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court and the first African-American Chief Justice of that Court, serving two four-year terms from February 1, 2003 to January 31, 2011. He was succeeded by the current Chief Justice, Cynthia D. Kinser...

, Virginia Supreme Court; General William K. Suter Clerk, U.S. Supreme Court; Dean and Professor John Jeffries, University of Virginia School of Law; Dean Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Starr
Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....

, Pepperdine University School of Law; Theodore Olson
Theodore Olson
Theodore Bevry Olson is a former United States Solicitor General, serving from June 2001 to July 2004 under President George W. Bush.- Early life :...

, attorney with Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher; Professor Linda Greenhouse
Linda Greenhouse
Linda Greenhouse is the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph M. Goldstein Senior Fellow at Yale Law School...

, Yale University School of Law; Joan Biskupic
Joan Biskupic
Joan Biskupic is an American journalist, author, and lawyer who has covered the United States Supreme Court since 1989. She has been the Legal Affairs Correspondent for USA Today since June 2000. From 1992 to 2000, she was the Supreme Court reporter for The Washington Post, and from 1989 to 1992...

, USA Today; Jan Crawford Greenburg
Jan Crawford Greenburg
Jan Crawford, formerly known as Jan Crawford Greenburg, is a television journalist, author, and lawyer. She currently serves as both the political correspondent and chief legal correspondent for CBS News and appears regularly on the CBS Evening News, Face the Nation, Early Show, and CBS News Sunday...

, ABC News; and Professor Tinsley Yarbrough, East Carolina University. Associate Justice Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice...

 of the U.S. Supreme Court was the 2010 Abraham Lecturer. Professor Nadine Strossen
Nadine Strossen
Nadine Strossen was president of the American Civil Liberties Union from February 1991 to October 2008. She was the first woman and the youngest person to ever lead the ACLU. A professor at New York Law School, Professor Strossen sits on the Council on Foreign Relations...

, American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...

President (1991–2008), delivered the Abraham Lecture on April 1, 2011.

Personal Interests

Abraham is an avid fan of his adopted city’s teams—the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is also an opera aficionado, a philatelist, an inveterate traveler, a connoisseur of single-malt scotch and fine chocolate, and he loves spending time with his four grandchildren.
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