PAUL R. McDANIEL

MCDANIEL, PAUL R.

Professor

Paul R. McDaniel, 74, emeritus professor of law at the University of Florida College of Law, died on July 16 at home. The cause was mesothelioma. Mr. McDaniel had lived in Gainesville for six years since joining the UF faculty.

Born in Sabetha, Kansas to Paul T. and Marie (Sutton) McDaniel, he graduated in 1954 from Classen High School, Oklahoma City. He earned degrees at the University of Oklahoma and Harvard Law School. In 1995, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Uppsala (Sweden).

After practicing tax law in Oklahoma City for several years, Mr. McDaniel worked in the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Tax Legislative Counsel. His departure from that office in August 1969 made front page news. The incoming Nixon administration required appointees to be approved by their home-state senators, and Senator Bellmon (R., OK) refused to approve Mr. McDaniel's appointment, threatening to vote against the then-pending ABM Treaty. The New York Times headline read "Tax Aide's Ouster Is Called the Price of a Vote for ABM." Sen. Bellmon's was the deciding vote.

From 1970 to 1987, Mr. McDaniel taught at Boston College Law School and then joined the Boston law firm Hill and Barlow as a partner. He devoted increased attention to international taxation and was an active member of the International Fiscal Association throughout his career. In 1977, Mr. McDaniel co-authored Introduction to United States International Taxation, which is still widely used in the U.S. and abroad and is now in its sixth edition. Mr. McDaniel remained active in the tax legislative process at both the state and federal level, including as advisor to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis and Senators Albert Gore, Sr. and Edward Kennedy.

Joining the NYU School of Law faculty in 1993, Mr. McDaniel developed the school's LL.M. in International Taxation program and subsequently became the director of the Graduate Tax Program. In 2004, Mr. McDaniel was named the James J. Freeland Eminent Scholar in Taxation and Professor of Law at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law.

Mr. McDaniel is recognized as one of the most influential tax scholars of the past fifty years. The groundbreaking work he did with Stanley Surrey in developing the concept of tax expenditures remains one of the most significant developments in tax theory and continues to play a major role in the evolution of tax law. During his academic career, which spanned four decades, Mr. McDaniel authored or co-authored over sixty articles on U.S. and international taxation. He is also the co-author of six books on U.S. taxation, five of which are currently used in law schools in the U.S. and abroad.

Throughout his life, Mr. McDaniel was active as a lay leader in the church. He served as Moderator of the Metropolitan Boston Association of the United Church of Christ in the early 1990s and was highly regarded for his preaching on social issues. His leadership was significant as that denomination moved to welcome gays and lesbians to full participation in the life of the church.

Mr. McDaniel is survived by his wife, the Rev. Virginia Ann McDaniel (pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Alachua, FL), a daughter Alysa and her husband Craig Emden and granddaughters Alix and Maia, a son Kyle and his wife Barbara and grandsons Aubyn and Rowan, a brother Ron (Buzz) and his wife Betty, a stepdaughter Kate Mason and her partner Jen, a stepson Andrew Mason, and his former wife Joyce (Kirchner) McDaniel.

The family will receive callers at home on Tuesday, July 20, between 4 and 7 p.m. On Wednesday, July 21, a memorial service will be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Gainesville at 4 p.m., with a musical tribute performed by Rebecca Brown to begin at 3:30 p.m. A reception at the church will follow. Mr. McDaniel will be cremated and his ashes interred in the butterfly garden at his home in Gainesville. A public celebration of Mr. McDaniel's life will take place at the Baughman Center in the fall.

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorial donations be made to one of the following: The "Paul R. McDaniel International Tax Scholarship" for international students and scholars at the University of Florida (University of Florida Law Center Association, Inc., PO Box 14412, Gainesville, FL 32604-4412), or "Food4Kids of Alachua"(c/o First Presbyterian Church of Alachua, PO Box 308, Alachua, FL 32616), the weekend food program Mr. McDaniel helped create with his wife.