[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 144 (Tuesday, August 28, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1183]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF PROFESSOR LAWRENCE A. JEGEN III

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. SUSAN W. BROOKS

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 28, 2018

  Mrs. BROOKS of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life 
and legacy of the late Professor Lawrence A. Jegen III, a pillar of the 
Indianapolis community and an outstanding teacher and mentor. For 56 
years, Professor Jegen served as the Thomas F. Sheehan Professor of Tax 
Law and Policy at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of 
Law, and was an active member of the legal community. The people of 
Indiana's Fifth Congressional District are forever grateful for 
Professor Jegen's commitment to providing his law students with an 
outstanding education and for his significant contributions to the 
state of Indiana and the nation.
  Although he was a Chicago native, Professor Jegen was a long time 
Hoosier, dedicating more than five decades of service to Indiana 
University (IU) and his law students. A 1956 graduate of Beloit 
College, Professor Jegen earned a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and 
literature. He later attended the University of Michigan receiving his 
Juris Doctor in 1959 and a Masters of Business Administration in 
accounting in 1960. His passion for knowledge led him to New York 
University, where he received a Master of Laws (LL.M) in taxation in 
1963. Professor Jegen began his career as an Assistant Professor of Law 
in 1962. He later became the Special Counsel for the Indiana Department 
Revenue in 1963 before becoming a full Professor of Law at the Indiana 
University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in 1966. During his tenure, 
he served on Governor Edgar Whitcomb's Commission on Medical Education 
in 1970 while teaching taxation, estate planning, and philanthropy. 
Professor Jegen is best remembered for his love of tax law and his 
dedication to his students, both prior to and following graduation. I 
am so fortunate to have been one of those students. He saw the 
greatness within all his pupils and found fulfillment in helping them 
grow.
  With a proven record as an exceptional leader, Professor Jegen was 
appointed by the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), to 
the Commissioner's Advisory Committee in 1981. For his work, he 
received nine certificates of recognition from the IRS for 
contributions to the education of IRS personnel. Professor Jegen was a 
driving force behind the Employee Retirement Income Security Act 
(ERISA), helping to draft the bill and testifying before Congress. 
After the bill's passage in 1974, he attended the signing ceremony in 
the Rose Garden of the White House at the invitation of President 
Gerald Ford. ERISA remains an important tax and labor act of 
legislation today, becoming the underpinning of current pension and 
401(k) plans. Professor Jegen also co-founded the Indiana Bar Review, 
the official bar exam review course of the Indianapolis Bar 
Association. This program is specifically designed to prepare future 
Indiana lawyers to practice Indiana law. Here he conducted over 400 bar 
review tax lectures spanning more than 35 years. Ever dedicated to 
education, he later co-founded the Annual Tax Institute for Colleges 
and Universities with Stewart T. Cobine, which educated thousands of 
lawyers and accountants from 1994 to 2010.
  A testament to an outstanding career, Professor Jegen was honored 
with numerous awards and accolades. He was awarded the President's 
Distinguished Teaching Award from IU President John Ryan in 1987 and 
the Teaching Excellence Recognition Award from the IU Board of Trustees 
in 1997. He notably received the Thomas Hart Benton Mural Medallion 
twice, the highest award given by IU. Professor Jegen was especially 
honored to receive the ``Black Cane Award'' six times from students, 
recognizing him as the most outstanding law professor. He was also a 
three-time recipient of the Sagamore of the Wabash from Governors 
Matthew E. Welsh, Edgar Whitcomb, and Otis Bowen.
  His life-long commitment to the law and his students led to Professor 
Jegen's service on the board of directors for the American College 
Probate Counsel, American College Tax Counsel, American Bar 
Association, Federal Bar Association, the Indianapolis Bar Association, 
and the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, and served as chairman of 
Baccalaureate Education Systems Trust of Indiana. He also sat on the 
advisory boards for the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy and 
the Midwest Institute on Estate and Tax Planning. He served on the 
American College Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum in the 1980s 
and early 1990s where he helped shape and define the direction of 
future programming efforts. In 2018, an endowed chair, the Lawrence A. 
Jegen, III Chair in Tax Law, was created in his honor.
  Professor Jegen will be forever missed by his family and loved ones 
as well as his colleagues and friends at the Indiana University Robert 
H. McKinney School of Law and across Indiana. The people of Indiana's 
Fifth Congressional District are grateful for Professor Jegen's service 
to our Hoosier community and it is my privilege to honor him today. On 
behalf of all Hoosiers, I thank Professor Jegen for his service to the 
great state of Indiana and the United States of America. His legacy of 
excellence will live on for generations to come through his family, 
friends, colleagues and the thousands of attorneys who had the 
privilege of learning from him.