Duke Law Professor Jerome Culp Dies at Age 53
Scholar was known for expertise in race and the law and on economic and labor issues
Note to editors: A photo of Jerome Culp is available at http://www.dukephoto.duke.edu/pages/Duke_News_Service/culp.jpg
DURHAM, N.C. -- Jerome M. Culp Jr., a professor at Duke University School of Law for nearly 20 years, died Thursday at age 53. Culp suffered from kidney disease, and despite a kidney transplant last July his condition seriously deteriorated the last few weeks.
A specialist in race and the law, law and economics, and labor economics issues, Culp began his career with the Rockefeller Foundation in New York working on youth employment and affirmative action issues. In 1980, he clerked for the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, and in 1981 he worked as an economist in the Carter Administration. He joined the Duke University Law School faculty in 1985.
"We are all profoundly saddened by this great loss," said Katharine Bartlett, Duke Law School's dean and A. Kenneth Pye Professor of Law. "Jerome was an extraordinarily generous teacher, mentor and scholar. He leaves behind students who adored him and colleagues who will deeply miss his friendship and intellectual stimulation."
A memorial service celebrating his life will be held on Saturday, February 14, at 1 p.m., in the library reading room at Duke Law School. A reception will follow immediately afterward on the Law School loggias.
The family has asked that those wishing to make donations in Culp's honor direct these donations to the Jerome M. Culp Jr. Scholarship Endowment at Duke Law School, Box 90389, Duke Law School, Durham NC 27708.
The family also intends to honor Culp by donating the bulk of his personal library for a special collection on race and the law in the Duke Law School Library.
During his tenure at Duke University Law School, Culp was a sought-after visiting professor at such prestigious schools as the University of California, Berkeley School of Law; New York University School of Law and North Carolina Central University School of Law. He was also the MacArthur Distinguished Visiting Scholar at what was then the Joint Center for Political Studies in Washington, D.C., and served as the director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at Duke Law School from 1989 to 1993.
Culp was actively involved in civil rights issues and testified as an expert for plaintiffs in Evans v. Romer and Equality Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, Inc. v. City of Cincinnati -- two cases challenging state constitutional and city charter amendments that sought to eliminate civil rights protections for gays, lesbians and bisexuals. He was also a member of the national board of Parents Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. He has taught classes on torts, employment discrimination, labor law, critical race theory, economic analysis of law and sexuality and the law.
Born in 1950 in Clarksville, Pa., a small coal-mining town near West Virginia, Culp earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, where he played varsity football and studied economics. After graduating from Chicago in 1972, he earned a master's degree in economics at Harvard University in 1974 and subsequently received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1978.
Culp was an avid enthusiast of history, literary theory, economics, science fiction, ethics, Duke basketball and playing "pickup" basketball.
Culp is survived by his father, Jerome Culp Sr.; siblings Jeffery, Joseph, James, Jonathan and Risa Culp McCray; and several nieces and nephews.