Collection Summary

Creator: Gregory, Charles
Title: The Papers of Charles O. Gregory, 1937 - 1966
Accession: MSS 79-9
Description: 1 box; .2 linear feet.
Location: Special Collections
Photograph Collection: View 0 digitized photographs
Digitized Content: 34 objects
Use Restrictions: There are no restrictions.

Collection Description & Arrangement

This small collection of papers was given to the Law Library by Professor Gregory in the late 1960's. Included are twenty years' correspondence with Felix Frankfurter (1941 - 1961), a letter from Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937), some writings of Robert and Edward Kennedy, both students of Gregory (1950 - 1966), and a notebook containing correspondence regarding the Festschriften for Gregory in the May, 1977 issue of the Virginia Law Review.

Biographical & Historical Information

A native of Derby, Connecticut, Charles Oscar Gregory received a B.A. and LL.B. from Yale University in 1924 and 1926, respectively. After practicing law in New York for two years, he accepted an Assistant Professorship at the University of Wisconsin Law School and from 1930 until 1936 served as Associate Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. He came to Virginia in 1949 from the University of Chicago and became the John B. Minor Professor of Law in 1958. Gregory was considered a pioneer in the field of labor law, and his treatise, Labor and the Law, was described by Emerson Spies as “the bible for both college and law students throughout the country.” First published in 1946, the third edition came out in 1974. Gregory was extremely well liked by his students. At UVA, his courses included Labor Law, Labor Arbitration and Collective Bargaining, Torts, and Labor Relations. When he retired in 1967, the third year law class established a professorship in his name, departing from the usual tradition of establishing a chair in the name of a deceased faculty member.  As a law student asked on learning of Gregory’s retirement, “Why can’t the law school get more Charlie Gregorys?”  The Law Weekly’s response was “There just aren’t any more.”  Gregory is described in the 1967 Barrister as follows: “A probing and incisive mind, a genially compelling personality, an ardent bird watcher.” After retiring from UVA, he taught a course in Advanced Torts at the University of Connecticut School of Law for eight years. A former student and later a colleague, H.C. Macgill, described Gregory’s approach to teaching: “His optimism, and the egalitarianism that was inseparable from it, made Charlie an irresistible classroom teacher.”

Acquisition Information

Date Received 1967
Donor Information This small collection of papers was donated to the Law Library by Professor Gregory between 1967 and 1969.

Content List

Box 1:

  • Folder 1:
    • 1941 – 1961; Felix Frankfurter – Charles O. Gregory Correspondence [21 Letters to Gregory from Frankfurter; 1 from Gregory to Frankfurter and copy of opinion of Association of Westinghouse Salaries Employees v. Westinghouse Electric Corp. March 28, 1955, with written greeting.
  • Folder 2:
    • [1958 or 1959]; Edward Kennedy Exam on Labor Law.
  • Folder 3:
    • [ca. 1950 or 1951] – 1964; Robert F. Kennedy Seminar Paper, John F. Kennedy Obituary Card and Robert F. Kennedy Thank You Note to Gregory; Letter from Robert F. Kennedy to Gregory re school named after President Kennedy in Ireland.
  • Folder 4:
    • 1937, Feb. 16; Franklin D. Roosevelt note accepting resignation of Gregory as Solicitor of Labor.
    • 1962, Dec. 3; Certificate appointing Gregory to the President’s Committee for the Department of Labor Fiftieth Anniversary Year. [Certificate rolled in box.]
  • Folder 5:
    • 1964, Feb. 5; Thank you note from W. Williard Wirtz, Secretary of Labor to Gregory.
    • 1967. May; Charles O. Gregory Festschriffen; photos and correspondence relating to the essays which appeared in the Virginia Law Review of May 1967.  (Ring Notebook).

Use Policy

Access There are no restrictions.
Use Restrictions There are no restrictions.
Preferred Citation

Charles A. Gregory Collection, 1937 - 1966, MSS 79-9, Box Number, Special Collections, University of Virginia Law Library.

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