[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 106 (Thursday, July 9, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1027]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RECOGNIZING MR. ROBERT GENE LAWSON

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ED WHITFIELD

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, July 9, 2015

  Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Robert Gene 
Lawson, a renowned professor who greatly contributed to law reform 
efforts and education in Kentucky. He retired on July 1 after 50 years 
of teaching at the University of Kentucky, College of Law. He advanced 
the lives of countless students through education and public service. A 
few of his students include U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch 
McConnell, Governor Steve Beshear, U.S. Representative Andy Barr, and 
most of the Kentucky Supreme Court. He was also one of my favorite 
professors, and I have a great deal of respect and admiration for him.
  Professor Lawson was born in 1938 in a small coal mining community in 
West Virginia. His father, a coal miner, urged him to escape the coal 
camp through education, and Professor Lawson worked his way through 
tuition-free Berea College and then went on to receive a law degree 
from the University of Kentucky in 1963. He practiced law for two years 
and then accepted an invitation to teach at his alma mater in 1965. He 
served as the Dean of the College of Law from 1971-1973 and again from 
1982-1988. Professor Lawson is a Member of the University of Kentucky, 
College of Law Hall of Fame, and University of Kentucky Hall of 
Distinguished Alumni.
  In addition to his impressive teaching history, Professor Lawson has 
many other significant accomplishments that contributed to the 
Commonwealth of Kentucky. He was the principal drafter of Kentucky's 
Penal Code, and its rules of Courtroom Evidence, and led investigation 
into the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in 1977 that killed 165 people 
in Northern Kentucky. Bob Lawson has tirelessly worked with the General 
Assembly to ensure that state jails and prisons are housing criminals 
and not people, such as the mentally ill and the addicted, who can be 
rehabilitated into productive members of society. Professor Lawson has 
written an important paper on criminal and evidence law, books that now 
occupy the shelves of law libraries and judicial chambers.
  The University of Kentucky and the entire Commonwealth have surely 
benefitted from Professor Lawson's time and service. His legacy will 
carry on as his students continue to serve in the legal profession and 
public service, and I personally thank him for his years of honorable 
dedication and tutelage.

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