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IN MEMORIAM
PARKER C. FIELDER
Parker Clinton Fielder, professor of law, died on January
9, 1985. He was 66.
Professor Fielder was born on October 20, 1918, and
attended secondary school in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, at Northwestern
Military and Naval Academy. He received a bachelor's degree in commerce
(accounting and finance) in 1941 from Northwestern University. After
graduation, he worked for two years, 1941—42, as an accountant
and auditor for Sears, Roebuck & Company in Chicago.
During World War II, he served from 1943 to 1946 in
the U.S. Army as assistant inspector general, 103rd Infantry Division,
including fifteen months in Europe. He was awarded a Bronze Star and
discharged with the rank of captain.
After his military service, Professor Fielder enrolled
in the School of Law at The University of Texas, where he became editor-in-chief
of the Texas Law Review. After graduation in 1948 with the highest
standing in his class, he received the ultimate vote of confidence from
the faculty–an offer to teach law in the company of such distinguished
legal minds as Deans Leon Green, W. Page Keeton, and Charles Tilford
McCormick.
Professor Fielder taught at Texas for five years, but
his interest in natural resources taxation along with the oil boom in
West Texas led him to enter private practice in 1953 as a partner in
the Midland, Texas, firm of Turpin, Kerr, Smith, and Dyer.
With eight years' experience in the field, he returned
to the UT law school in 1961, where he remained for the rest of his
career. Professor Fielder's West Texas years gave him both insights
into the oil and gas business and the hint of a Texas accent.
Back at the Texas law school, he established his reputation
as a natural resource taxation scholar. His other research interests
included federal income taxation, state and local taxation, corporate
finance, and securities regulation. A member of the American Law Institute,
he published many articles and maintained a close relationship with
the Texas tax bar, thus staying in touch with most of his former students.
His work earned him the respect of colleagues, students, attorneys,
and judges.
Two UT Austin professorships honor him: the Parker C.
Fielder Regents Professorship in Tax Law and Parker C. Fielder Regents
Professorship in Music.
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty
Biographical sketch prepared by Teresa Palomo
Acosta and posted on the Faculty Council web site on December
4, 2000. Additional biographical sources can be found in the UT
Office of Public Affairs, Office of the Executive Vice President
and Provost, Barker Texas History Center, and Jamail Center for
Legal Research, Tarlton Law Library, School of Law; Roger Williams,
"How Radical Is Our Law School Faculty?" Alcalde, March
1969, Vol. 57, No. 7, pp. 6—13; "In Memoriam: Parker C. Fielder,"
the February 1985 issue of Texas Law Review, Vol. 63, No.
5, contains an introduction by the editors and articles about
Professor Fielder by W. Page Keeton, Joseph T. Sneed III, Charles
O. Galvin, Stanley M. Johanson, and Donald R. Keyser, pp. 754—775.
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