Henry Friendly

(Redirected from Henry Jacob Friendly )

Henry Jacob Friendly (July 3, 1903 – March 11, 1986) was an American jurist who served as a federal circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1959 to 1986. He was the court's chief judge from 1971 to 1973 and presided over its specialized railroad court from 1974 to 1986.

Henry Friendly

Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit In office
April 15, 1974 – March 11, 1986Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit In office
July 20, 1971 – July 3, 1973Preceded byJ. Edward Lumbard Succeeded byIrving Kaufman Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit In office
September 10, 1959 – April 15, 1974Appointed byDwight D. Eisenhower Preceded byHarold Medina Succeeded byEllsworth Van Graafeiland

Personal detailsBornHenry Jacob Friendly
(1903-07-03)July 3, 1903

Elmira, New York , U.S.

DiedMarch 11, 1986(1986-03-11) (aged 82)

New York City, U.S.

Cause of deathSuicide by drug overdoseParty Republican

Spouse

Sophie Pfaelzer Stern

​

​

(m. 1930; died 1985)​

Children3EducationHarvard University (AB , LLB )

Awards

Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977)

Born in Elmira, New York , Friendly graduated with highest honors from Harvard College at age 19. He then excelled as a prodigy at Harvard Law School , where he achieved the highest grades in the school's history, was elected president of the _Harvard Law Review _, and is credited with inventing The Bluebook . After clerking for Justice Louis Brandeis , he co-founded the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in 1945 and became the general counsel and vice president of Pan Am Airways in 1946. On the recommendation of Judge Learned Hand and Justice Felix Frankfurter , President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Friendly to the Second Circuit in 1959.

In his 27 years on the federal circuit, Friendly penned more than 1,000 opinions while authoring books and law review articles that are now considered seminal. He was especially influential in the fields of administrative law , securities regulation , and federal jurisdiction . His opinions remain some of the most cited in federal jurisprudence and he is considered one of the most prominent and influential federal judges of the 20th century.

Contents

• 1 Early life

  • 1.1 Education

• 2 Postgraduate years

  • 2.1 Studies in Europe

  • 2.2 Law school

• 3 Clerkship under Brandeis

• 4 Private practice

  • 4.1 Pan Am and Cleary, Gottlieb

• 5 Nomination to the Second Circuit

• 6 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

• 7 Legacy

• 8 Honors

• 9 Personal life

  • 9.1 Family and marriage

  • 9.2 Health

  • 9.3 Death

• 10 Law clerks

• 11 Extrajudicial writings

  • 11.1 Books

  • 11.2 Journals

• 12 See also

• 13 Notes

• 14 References

• 15 Bibliography

  • 15.1 Journals

• 16 External links

Early life

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Friendly&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Early life")

Henry Jacob Friendly was born in Elmira, New York , on July 3, 1903, the only child of middle-class German-Jewish parents, Myer and Leah. His ancestors were dairy farmers in Wittelshofen , Bavaria, who adopted the surname _Freundlich _ (lit. 'Friendly'). His great-grandfather, Josef Myer Freundlich (1803–1880), was a prosperous farmer who lost his estate in a fire in 1831 but later made a fortune in livestock dealing. Josef's son, Heinrich, immigrated to the United States in 1852 to avoid conscription and anglicised the family name to _Friendly _. Heinrich began working as a peddler but soon acquired and ran a carriage factory in [Cuba, New York](https://en.wikipedia.

…

Friendly (topmost right) with other members of the Elmira Free Academy Debate Society, 1917

Although he missed several periods of school away on family vacations, Friendly skipped three grades. He took interests in American history and English literature—especially English writers George Eliot and William Makepeace Thackeray —but avoided science. He became a versatile student at the Elmira Free Academy , where he was considered one of the "most brilliant students ever to attend" and once discovered a mathematical error in its trigonometry textbook. He was chosen to be class valedictorian and editor-in-chief of the academy's newspaper, The Vindex. Upon graduating in 1919, he sat the New York Regents Examinations and attained the highest scores ever recorded in its 55-year history.

After obtaining a copy of its catalog, Friendly was drawn to Harvard ; two months after his sixteenth birthday, he left Elmira for Cambridge to matriculate at Harvard College , which had accepted him on merit. He was an isolated, underage student among classmates who largely came from elite families and belonged to exclusive clubs. Instead, Friendly frequented the Boston Symphony Orchestra , the Museum of Fine Arts , and immersed himself with a focus in history, philosophy, and government. He especially enjoyed history, a pursuit reinforced by Harvard's emphasis on the field's intellectual and political aspects. Indicating his standing as one of Harvard's top eight students, Friendly's performance won him election to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. His successes in the classroom were noticed by peers. Classmate Albert Gordon recalled: "we thought of him not only as the smartest in the class but the smartest at Harvard College."

Harvard housed the nation's leading faculty devoted to European history, in which Friendly excelled. He took courses under prominent scholars Charles Homer Haskins , Archibald Cary Coolidge , and Frederick Jackson Turner . He studied government under Harvard president Abbott Lowell , and was exposed to European diplomatic history under William Langer . The professor he admired the most was Charles Howard McIlwain , whose course in medieval England he credited with being "the greatest educational experience I had at Harvard College." The medievalist urged that "one must read words as they meant to the people of the times rather than as they mean to us," advice Friendly later adopted as a judge. …