Daniel John Meador

Daniel John Meador Daniel John Meador, 86, died on Saturday, February 9, 2013, in Charlottesville. He was a retired University of Virginia law professor. Professor Meador was born on December 7, 1926, in Selma, Alabama, the son of Mabel Kirkpatrick and Dr. Daniel John Meador Jr. He attended The Citadel and was graduated from Auburn University and the University of Alabama Law School. He pursued graduate study at the Harvard Law School and received the degree of Master of Laws in 1954. During the Korean War, he served in the United States Army, first in the artillery and then in the Judge Advocate General's Corps in Korea. He attained the rank of Colonel in the JAGC reserve. In 1954-55 he was law clerk to Justice Hugo L. Black of the United States Supreme Court. He then entered law practice in Birmingham, Alabama, with the firm of Lange, Simpson, Robinson, and Somerville. In 1957 he joined the law faculty at the University of Virginia. In 1965-66 he was a Fulbright Lecturer in England, and from 1966 to 1970 he was dean of the University of Alabama Law School. In 1970 he rejoined the University of Virginia law faculty as James Monroe Professor of Law, a position he held until his retirement in 1994. Professor Meador's major professional interest was the state and federal appellate courts, and he was involved in numerous projects and studies designed to strengthen and improve them. From 1971 to 1975 he served on the Advisory Council for Appellate Justice, the body advising the Federal Judicial Center and the National Center for State Courts on appellate matters. In 1977-79 he was an Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice. At the request of Attorney General Griffin Bell, he organized a new office in the Department, the Office for Improvements in the Administration of Justice. Its mission was to identify problems in the federal and state courts and develop solutions. Among the numerous bills it drafted, and which were introduced in Congress, the most significant was the bill that created the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the Court of Federal Claims. He was often referred to as the father of the Federal Circuit. Other bills drafted in the Office and enacted by Congress dealt with the enlargement of federal magistrates' jurisdiction, terms of chief judges, reorganizing circuit judicial councils, and the Supreme Court's discretionary jurisdiction. The Office also took the lead in promoting nationwide programs of alternative dispute resolution. He served on the boards of directors of the State Justice Institute, the American Judicature Society, and the American Society for Legal History. In 1987-90 he chaired the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements. In 1998-99 he was executive director of the congressionally created Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals, chaired by Justice Byron White. Professor Meador did extensive research in the English and German appellate courts. In 1983 he spent three months in East Germany studying legal education and courts in that Marxist-Leninist regime. In 1984 he was a visiting professor of law at the United States Military Academy. He had a major interest in legal education. In addition to his deanship at Alabama, he was the founding director of the Graduate Program for Judges at the University of Virginia Law School, and served in that capacity from 1979 to 1995. In 1964-65 he was chairman of the Southeastern Conference of the Association of American Law Schools. He chaired the advisory committee for the Journal of Legal Education in 1966-70. His professional memberships included the American Bar Association, Virginia State Bar, Virginia Bar Association, Alabama State Bar, American Law Institute, the American Society of Legal History, and the Judicial Conference of the Fourth Circuit. At various times he was a member of the board of directors of the Charlottesville unit of Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. He served as an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of Charlottesville. In earlier years he was a member of the Farmington Country Club and the Cosmos Club. At the University of Virginia he received the Raven Award, the Alumni Association Distinguished Professor Award, and the Thomas Jefferson Award, the University's highest honor. Because of his support of the University's Honor System, he was invited several times to speak on it to entering students and new faculty members. He received the Justice Award from the American Judicature Society, the Distinguished Service Award from the National Center for State Courts, the Samuel E. Gates Litigation Award from the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the William B. Spong Professionalism Award from the Virginia Bar Association. His former wife, Jan, died in 2008 after 52 years of marriage. He is survived by his wife, Alice P. Meador of Charlottesville; and by three children, Barrie Meador Boyd and her husband, Robert D. Boyd, of Atlanta; Anna Meador Palms and her husband, John M. Palms Jr., of Dallas; and Daniel J. Meador Jr. and his wife, Mary Lewis Bowen Meador, of Charlottesville; seven grandchildren; and a brother, Dr. Clifton K. Meador of Nashville. A memorial service will be held 3 p.m. Friday, February 15, 2013, at First Presbyterian Church, 500 Park Street, Charlottesville. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Learning Ally (successor to RFB&D), 3500 Remson Court, Charlottesville, VA 22901, or to a charity of choice.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.