[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 129 (Thursday, October 6, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                CONGRATULATIONS TO MR. CLAUDE M. ROHWER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN T. DOOLITTLE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 6, 2005

  Mr. DOOLITTLE. Mr. Speaker, today I wish to express warm thanks and 
congratulations to Mr. Claude M. Rohwer, upon his retirement as 
Associate Dean of the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of 
Law. After nearly four and a half decades of service as a professor, he 
now concludes a stellar career in academia.
  A native of Dixon, California, Claude grew up raising pigs on his 
family's Sacramento Valley farm. He received his undergraduate 
education at the acclaimed University of California at Berkeley, 
following which he earned his Juris Doctorate degree from Berkeley's 
Boalt Hall School of Law in 1958. That same year, he began service to 
his country in the U.S. Air Force's Judge Advocate General's Corps.
  From 1960 to 1961, Claude was a Deputy Attorney General for the State 
of California. Following this experience, he launched a career in 
private practice with the firm of Downey, Brand, Seymour and Rohwer in 
Sacramento. After a few years as an associate in what was then the 
largest practice in the city, he became a partner from 1965 to 1967.
  Mr. Speaker, having taught at the McGeorge School of Law since 1961, 
Claude decided to leave private practice in 1967 to take a full-time 
position on the faculty as one of four charter professors. Generations 
of law students are grateful that he did, for he helped the school 
develop from a small, unknown entity into a proud institution.
  Claude has specialized in international law during his career. From 
1982 to 1986, he was the Associate Dean for Graduate and International 
Programs. And since 2003 he has filled duties as the Associate Dean for 
International Affairs. He has lectured and consulted all over the 
world. He has taught commercial and contract law courses in cities 
including Vienna, Salzburg, Edinburgh, Shanghai, and London. Most 
recently, he has consulted the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice and the 
Ministry of Trade to help rewrite that nation's civil code and 
commercial law respectively.
  In addition to being an accomplished teacher, Claude has published 
many legal works. While much of his writing portfolio has an 
international emphasis, I benefited from his text ``Contracts in a 
Nutshell'' when I was his student at McGeorge.
  Claude is a member in good standing of the California Bar 
Association, American Bar Association, and International Bar 
Association. Among his professional honors, Professor Rohwer belongs to 
the Order of the Coif, was named an Amicus Lex Scholar in 1982, and was 
the University of the Pacific Professor of the Year in 1981.
  In retirement, Claude plans to write a history of McGeorge. In 
addition to spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren, he 
also intends to continue singing bass with the West Valley Chorale and 
pursuing the love of hunting he inherited from his own father.
  Mr. Speaker, I take great pleasure in commending Professor Claude 
Rohwer for his outstanding service to our country as a member of the 
Armed Forces, an able attorney, and a career educator. After all that 
has been said about him, he is simply a good and decent man, and I am 
personally thankful for his guidance and instruction he has provided to 
me and countless other students of the law. May he enjoy this next 
phase of life with the satisfaction of knowing he has had a tremendous 
influence on the profession he loves.

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