Roy M. Mersky

Roy Mersky, 2006

Roy Martin Mersky (born  September 1, 1925 in New York City , †  May 6, 2008 in Austin ) was an American lawyer and librarian . He worked from 1963 to 1965 as a professor and librarian at the University of Colorado , and from 1965 until his death as a professor and director of the law library at the University of Texas , and was known in his lifetime as one of the leading professional librarians in the field of law in the UNITED STATES.

Life

Roy Mersky was born in New York City in 1925 , where he also graduated from school in the Bronx . During World War II , he served in the Army of the United States from January 1944 to April 1946 . During this time he took part in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart . After the war, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin , where he received a BS degree in 1948 , graduated from law school with a Juris Doctor degree in 1952 , and a year later obtained a master's degree in applied library science.

From 1952 to 1954 he worked with friends in a law firm in Madison, Wisconsin , and from 1953 to 1954 he also worked for the Milwaukee City Public Library in the adult education sector. He then worked at the Law Library of Yale University from 1954 to 1959 , before serving as Director of the Law Library at Washington State University from 1959 to 1963 and as Professor and Librarian at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1963 to 1965 . From 1965 until shortly before his death, he then worked at the University of Texas at Austin as a professor of law and as director of the Tarlton Law Library . In the more than four decades of its activity, the library has grown into one of the leading legal libraries in the United States. In addition, Mersky trained a number of directors of other specialized libraries and acted as an advisor in building new legal libraries. His research and teaching interests have included legal research methodology, the history of the United States Supreme Court, and collecting rare legal textbooks.

Roy Mersky was also in the civil rights movement active and was the first white student at the University of Wisconsin, who was living with an African-American students in a room as an honorary member of the fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi was added, an African American of the oldest links students. He also took part in the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery marches and was temporarily a member of the board of the Central Texas Association of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and president of their local association in Austin .

Roy Mersky was married and had three daughters. He died in Austin in 2008. The Center for Special Collections and Rare Books is named after the University of Texas Law Library.

Works (selection)

• Fundamentals of Legal Research. Westbury, NY 1977 (further editions 1981, 1985, 1987, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002)
• The Rejected: Sketches of the 26 Men nominated for the Supreme Court but not confirmed by the Senate. Milpitas, CA 1993
• The first one hundred justices: Statistical Studies of the Supreme Court of the United States. Hamden, CT 1978
• The first one hundred and eight Justices: Statistical Studies of the Supreme Court of the United States. Buffalo, NY 2004
• Landmark Supreme Court Cases: The most influential Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. New York 2004

literature

• Ernest E. Smith: In Memoriam: Tribute to Professor Roy Mersky. In: Texas Law Review. 87 (1) / 2008. University of Texas School of Law, pp. 1-5, ISSN  0040-4411

Web links

• University of Texas at Austin School of Law - In Memoriam: Professor Roy M. Mersky, 1925–2008 (English, with picture)
• Tarlton Law Library - Professor Mersky: Curriculum vitae CV ( PDF file , approx. 545 kB)