Dunham, Allison

The first Committee on University Ranking Policy was appointed on May 16, 1966, by the Council of the University Senate and charged to study "...the consequences over the coming summer and fall of adhering to or reversing the present university policy of submitting rank upon the request of the student." The expansion of the Vietnam War in the mid-1960's had made the student deferment no longer automatic, and local draft boards were using, among other measures, a student's rank among other males in his class to determine whether to grant a deferment. Growing dissatisfaction with the University's policy of compiling male class ranks had culminated the week before with the occupation of the Administration Building for six days by groups of students, notably Students Against the Rank.

Allison Dunham (1914-1992) was born in Wessington Springs, South Dakota. He graduated from Yankton College in 1936 and completed his law degree at Columbia University in 1939. Upon graduation, Dunham spent two years clerking for Supreme Court Justice Harlan F. Stone. He then taught at Columbia University and Indiana University before joining the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School in 1951, where he remained until his retirement in 1983. While at the University of Chicago, he held several administrative positions: in 1971 he was appointed Director of the Center for Urban Studies and in 1976 he was named General Counsel of the University and Secretary of the Board of Trustees.

In addition to fulfilling his various roles at the University of Chicago, Dunham also worked with several public and private organizations in order to promote the standardization of American law. He worked on the Uniform Commercial Code, sat on the Illinois Commission on Uniform State Laws, and from 1962 to 1969 was the executive director of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

Dunham was an expert in probate and property law, including zoning, land regulation and urban development and published widely on these topics.

Dunham died at his home in 1992 in Pomona, California and was survived by his wife Anne Toll; his two sons, Stephen, of Denver, and Andrew, of Colorado Springs; two brothers, Douglas Dunham of East Lansing, and Roger Dunham of San Francisco; and two grandchildren.