Lincoln. Photo: ThaGreenlander, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lincoln_Population_7-28-15.jpg)
Lincoln. Photo: ThaGreenlander, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lincoln_Population_7-28-15.jpg)
(A legal annotation of the Restatement of the Law of Secur...)
A legal annotation of the Restatement of the Law of Security as applied in Nebraska, published by American Law Institute Publishers with the Nebraska State Bar Association as contributor.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Nebraska_Annotations_to_the_Restatement.html?id=Rw3AlrbjoXkC
1950
Henry Moroni Grether was born on January 29, 1920, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and died there on September 8, 2003. Salt Lake City remained an important personal base throughout his life; he studied and worked there during his University of Utah years and married Jane there.
Grether studied at the University of Utah, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1943 and a Juris Doctor degree in 1947. The University of Utah, founded in 1850, was Utah's principal public university and provided the setting for his undergraduate and legal education. During this period he also worked as a reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune and as a law clerk.
He continued his legal education at the University of Minnesota, receiving a Master of Laws degree in 1948. The University of Minnesota, a major public research university founded in 1851, had established professional schools serving the legal and public institutions of the Upper Midwest. His graduate training preceded his long faculty career at the University of Nebraska College of Law.
Grether joined the University of Nebraska College of Law faculty in 1948 and remained a professor there until 1990. He progressed from instructor to assistant professor, associate professor, and professor, teaching generations of law students and contributing to the school's legal scholarship. The College of Law, established within the University of Nebraska in 1891 and accredited by the American Bar Association in 1923, was an important center of legal education in the state.
He served as dean from 1966 to 1976. During his deanship, enrollment expanded, the number of women students increased substantially, new faculty positions were filled, and the College developed Ross McCollum Hall, which was completed in 1975. Grether also promoted alumni and outside support and helped establish continuing legal education activities, including the Great Plains Federal Tax Institute and Nebraska Continuing Legal Education, Inc.
His legal work extended beyond university teaching. He served as an assistant attorney general of Nebraska from 1957 to 1960, worked in private practice, and undertook special legal assignments for the City of Lincoln, the Nebraska Department of Roads, and the Nebraska Public Service Commission. These assignments included work on a comprehensive city zoning code, revision of hundreds of sections of Nebraska statutes, and preparation of extensive administrative rules. He also served as Republican counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee for a study of congestion in the federal court system.
Grether was a consultant to a bank establishing a trust department, a director of an agricultural credit corporation, a trustee of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, and an arbitrator of labor and commercial disputes involving private businesses and public agencies. His professional career combined legal education, public-law revision, private legal practice, arbitration, and service to Nebraska's legal institutions.
Grether helped develop Ross McCollum Hall for the University of Nebraska College of Law, a new law-school facility completed in 1975 during his deanship.
He helped found the Great Plains Federal Tax Institute and Nebraska Continuing Legal Education, Inc., expanding opportunities for continuing legal education in Nebraska.
He contributed to Nebraska legal reform through revision of major portions of the state's highway laws, preparation of administrative rules, and work on a comprehensive city zoning code.
He served as an arbitrator of labor and commercial disputes involving private businesses and federal and state agencies throughout the Midwest.
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1950Grether's recorded religious affiliation was African Gospel. The term identifies a Christian religious tradition associated with African and African-diaspora communities and gospel-centered worship.
Grether's professional outlook joined legal education with practical concern for the effects of law on people and communities. His work in legal education, statutory revision, arbitration, and continuing legal education reflected a view of law as a public institution requiring informed lawyers, workable rules, and sustained communication between the profession and society.
Grether belonged to national legal and judicial organizations, including the American Bar Association, the American Judicature Society, the American Arbitration Association, and the American Law Institute. He was also a Nebraska commissioner of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and served in the leadership of the Nebraska State Bar Association.
His memberships extended to civic, veterans', and fraternal organizations, including the American Legion, the Elks, Delta Phi, and Phi Alpha Delta. The American Law Institute develops restatements and model laws, while the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws drafts uniform statutes for consideration by state legislatures.
American Bar Association , United States
American Judicature Society , United States
Served on its national labor panel.
American Arbitration Association , United States
Longtime member.
American Law Institute , United States
Served as a Nebraska commissioner.
National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws , United States
Served as an elected member of the Executive Council.
Nebraska State Bar Association , United States
American Legion , United States
Elks , United States
Delta Phi , United States
Phi Alpha Delta , United States
Contemporaries described Grether as industrious, logical, orderly, patient, reserved, affable, and well liked by students, faculty, and colleagues. His teaching was characterized by close interest in students' legal education and personal development, and he used humor and practical examples in the classroom.
Quotes from others about the person
John Gradwohl described Grether as a superb law professor and lawyer whose concern as a teacher was to educate students and inform lawyers, and whose concern as a lawyer was with the people and communities affected by legal issues. Former law professors characterized Grether as a solid and industrious student with a clear, logical, and orderly mind, unusual patience, reserved affability, and an ability to work well with others.
Grether married Jane in Salt Lake City. They had three children, Debbie, Trace, and Sharon. His professional and personal life remained closely connected with the University of Nebraska College of Law, where former students later helped establish the chaired professorship named in his honor.
