Although ISBA past president Albert E. Jenner Jr. died in 1988, financial contributions he made to his alma mater, the University of Illinois College of Law, still bring acclaim to his memory.

A 1930 graduate of the law school, Jenner three years later joined the Chicago firm that was to become Jenner & Block. He headed the Illinois State Bar in 1949-50.

His generosity and appreciation for the legal education that helped make him a distinguished trial lawyer led to funding of the Albert J. Harno and Edward W. Cleary Chair, and the Albert E. Jenner Professorship.

The investitures of law professors Matthew W. Finkin in the Harno-Cleary Chair and John D. Colombo in the Jenner Professorship took place recently in Champaign.

The university honored Jenner with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 1962, an Illini Achievement Award in 1966, and an honorary doctorate in 1981. The law school established the Albert E. Jenner Jr. Memorial Library in 1994.

His international reputation resulted in his being appointed by President Truman in the 1950s to the U.S. Loyalty Review Board, one of many national commissions he received.

Senior counsel to the Warren Com-mission that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy, Jenner served on President Johnson's Commission on Causes and Prevention of Violence after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and DSen. Robert F. Kennedy were murdered.

He was chief special counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee during impeachment proceedings for President Nixon.

“When the soul of our nation was torn by the assassination of a president, our nation reached out to Bert Jenner,” former governor James R. Thompson recalled at a memorial service in Chicago.

“And when the fabric of our Constitution was threatened by the actions of a president, our nation reached out to Bert Jenner,” he continued.

“When the wounds were deep and grievous for all Americans, when some impoverished soul was threatened, when some unpopular cause would have been extinguished but for the bravery and perseverance of that man, they all reached out for Bert Jenner.”