Retirement of Justice Holmes From Supreme Court Recalls Incidents of His Days in the University

Oliver Wendell Holmes '61, poet, soldier, barrister, and justice of the Supreme Court, retires from the bench tomorrow on his eighty-fourth birthday. His life has been intimately connected with that of the nation for 60 years, 32 of which he has served on the country's highest judical body. His retirement recalls some of the events of the life of this most illustrious graduate of the University.

Justice Holmes is the son of the famous Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, poet and essayist. During his undergraduate life at the University from 1857 to 1861 he evidenced the literary tendency of his family. He did considerable writing and received a prize for an essay on Plato in his Senior year, he was elected class poet.

Before graduation, however, he left college to enlist in the Union army. He was stationed at Fort Independence where he wrote the class poem which he delivered at class day on a leave of absence. In the army Justice Holmes had a brilliant four years' career. He enlisted as a private and on his discharge in 1864 held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

In his contribution to the Class Book of 1861 he first signified his intention of going into jurisprudence. He proposed that, should he survive his service in the war, he would try the law, "at least for a starter". This "starter" which he received 58 years ago in the firm of Shattuck, Holmes, and Munroe, determined the course of his life as one of America's foremost jurists.

Before his appointment to the Supreme Court in 1883, Justice Holmes instructed for two years in the University. In 1870-71 he lectured on constitutional law in the college and in 1880 was appointed to a professorship in the Law School.

Justice Holmes' reputation for exactness of speech is proverbial. In writing for the Class Book mentioned above, he said: "I don't believe in gushing much in these college biographies. I think dry statements much fitter. Also I am too busy to write more if I would."

This attitude has characterized him throughout life, particularly in his Supreme Court opinions, which have been notable for their extreme conciseness.