William Dameron Guthrie (1859–1935) was an American lawyer and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

Biography

William Dameron Guthrie was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

on February 3, 1859. He was educated in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, in

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, and at the

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

(1879–80). In his practice before the

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he argued the

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, California

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Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

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, and

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

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s. He was a William L. Storrs lecturer at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1907-08 and was Ruggles Professor of Constitutional Law at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

from 1909 to 1922. Besides his contributions to periodicals on legal and political subjects, he was author of ''Lectures on the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution'' (1898), ''Introduction to American Constitutional Law'' (1913) and ''Magna Carta and Other Addresses'' (1916, Columbia University Press, NY). Guthrie served as president of the

Association of the Bar of the City of New York The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...

from 1925 to 1927. Guthrie also served as a lawyer to the

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. He married Ella E. Fuller in New York City on May 12, 1889. A

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, he was elected the first mayor of

Lattingtown, New York Lattingtown is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village located within the Oyster Bay (town), New York, Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York (state), New York, United States. The p ...

in 1931, and reelected in 1934. William Dameron Guthrie died at his home in Lattingtown on December 8, 1935. He was buried at

Locust Valley Cemetery Locust Valley Cemetery is a non-denominational cemetery located in Lattingtown, New York, in Nassau County. The cemetery was founded in the 19th Century and designed by John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., renowned architect ...

References

* American legal scholars American legal writers Columbia Law School alumni Columbia University faculty Lawyers from San Francisco 1859 births 1935 deaths Presidents of the New York City Bar Association Cravath, Swaine & Moore people Burials at Locust Valley Cemetery {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub