University of Illinois Law Review

Lining the hallway outside the deans' offices of the University of Illinois College of Law are portraits of the great scholars who have taught at Illinois over the years: Cleary, Cribbet, LaFave, Benfield, Hay, and others. One portrait stands out from all the rest--that of Professor Harry Krause. Where others are pictured holding a copy of their casebook or treatise, Professor Krause holds the travel section of the New York Times. Where others are wearing conservative ties, his is a bold and colorful nautical design. Where others look stern, or at least serious, Harry Krause shows the unmistakable traces of a smile.

On many a morning, promptly at 8:30, Professor Krause enters the classroom with the Times in hand, ready to share with his students the latest bit of news as it relates to the family--the story of the last living Confederate widow, a case of international parental kidnapping, or a witty cartoon. His love of travel and of sailing are as apparent in class as they are in the portrait. And the smile reveals a wicked sense of humor and a willingness to advance a provocative position to engage the students in a debate about policy.

That portrait is included in this tribute issue dedicated to Professor Krause, along with personal remembrances by his colleagues, friends, and former students, a review of one of his books, and articles on important family law issues by some of the most highly regarded scholars in the field.

As a recent student of Professor Krause's, having taken Family Law in the fall of 1996, I was not fully aware of his stature, nationally and internationally, until work began on this issue of the Law Review. The response to our requests for contributions to this issue was so overwhelmingly positive that I began to appreciate my great good fortune to be his student. But even if he were not the author of ground-breaking scholarship, the drafter of influential legislation, and the spokesperson for the rights of the vulnerable that he is, he is a wonderful teacher and deserving of such a tribute.

If I have one impression of Professor Krause that will stay with me long after I leave law school it is of his love of words and his gift of using language so beautifully and effectively. Professor Turner's book review talks about his "style and panache." As a lover of words myself, I recall a conversation with Professor Krause about my correspondence with the writers who contributed the tributes for this issue. I referred to him, in jest, as the "tributee." He rose from his chair, lifted a well-worn copy of the Oxford English Dictionary from the shelf above the desk, and informed me that there is indeed such a word.

Professor Krause has increased my vocabulary, challenged my assumptions about gender and family, influenced my choice of career path, and extended me the courtesy of treating me as a colleague even as I prepare for my final set of exams. I take this opportunity to extend my personal thanks to him with the knowledge that I speak for the many who have been similarly touched by his teaching since his arrival at Illinois in 1963.

The editors and members are pleased to dedicate this issue of the University of Illinois Law Review, with gratitude and admiration, to Professor Harry Krause.

Harry Krause was born in Germany in 1932 and grew up in war-torn Berlin, witness to bombing and strafing and the street battle in 1945 that marked the Soviet conquest and the Fourth of July fireworks that initiated the American liberation of West Berlin. Involved with a new liberal and social democratic youth organization, he quit when the movement was taken over by communists. In 1948, he and his classmates were flown out of Berlin to hold school in Frankfurt, as the Berlin schools were closed for lack of heating fuel resulting from the Soviet blockade. He was arrested in 1949 by Soviet guards while legally seeking to cross the East German border and escaped after three days in custody. The following year, after having changed schools more than a dozen times in twelve war and post-war years, he completed the gymnasium in Berlin-Wannsee with honors.

Professor Krause's university career began with the study of economics at the Free University of Berlin, a new institution which had been established in response to the Communist takeover of the university in the Soviet sector of Berlin. The completion of his B.A. degree at the University of Michigan in 1954 was the result of an invitation to join his mother's brother in Ann Arbor. Professor Krause recalls that it was an easy decision to make. Kindly occupation soldiers had already introduced him to Hershey bars, ice cream, and doughnuts. And teenage idealism, a sense of adventure, and a total disillusionment with the post-war revelations of Germany's horrid Nazi experience prompted him to accept the invitation. To young Krause, the United States was a functioning democratic country that had liberated West Berlin from Soviet occupation in 1945, had saved it by means of the airlift in 1948, and had become home to his uncle and grandfather.

Upon his graduation, he was drafted in to the U.S. Army where he learned how to climb telephone poles, send and receive Morse code, and drive military trucks. He then came full circle from "occupee" to "occupant" when he was sent back to Germany to run a division artillery headquarters operations office in Frankfurt. That year, 1955, was noteworthy for his receipt of the U.S. Army's World War II German Occupation Medal, still his favorite decoration, and his introduction to his future wife, Eva, then a student at Frankfurt University.

Like many returning veterans, he took advantage of the educational opportunities then available and entered the University of Michigan Law School. He graduated in 1958, having served on the law review, been elected to the Order of the Coif, and ranking third in his class. Once sure of a job after graduation, he returned to Germany to marry Eva.

From 1958-60, he was an associate at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Covington & Burling, specializing in corporate tax law. In 1960, he joined Ford International. When he decided to enter academics, there were a number of schools eager to hire a young man with such impressive credentials. It is Illinois's good fortune that the Krauses saw Champaign-Urbana as the ideal place to raise a family as well as home to a great law school.

The family that the Krauses planned to raise here consisted of three sons--Philip, Thomas, and Peter. The eldest, Philip, was born in Washington, D.C., and is now a physician doing virology research with the FDA. Second son, Thomas, was born during his father's employment with Ford in Michigan, and is now a patent and government lawyer with Covington & Burling. Peter, the youngest, was born in Urbana and is a computer consultant in Chicago. All three sons are married with children of their own. The Krause grandchildren, Benjamin, Joseph, Aiesha, and Elizabeth, are pictured on the dedication page of their grandfather's latest edition of his Family Law Nutshell. More recently grandson Austin Trey joined the crew.

Professor Krause was first published as a student in the Michigan Law Review--three times! He has been similarly prolific in the years that followed. A complete bibliography follows this biography. His casebook, Family Law: Cases, Comments, Questions, will shortly appear in its fourth edition, the first with coauthors--J. Thomas Oldham and Linda D. Elrod, contributors to this tribute issue. The student's friend, Family Law in a Nutshell, was recently published in its third edition, which has been as well received abroad as it has in the United States. A recent book review which first appeared in the Monash (Australia) University Law Review is reprinted in this issue.

Professor Krause is as active an editor as he is an author. He has served on the board of editors of Family Law Quarterly (1971-present), the Journal of Legal Education (1988-91), the American Journal of Comparative Law (1991-present), and other publications.

Not content to merely advocate law reform in his scholarly writings, Professor Krause has been an influential voice in law reform, nationally and internationally. He served as Illinois Commissioner to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws from 1991-97. He served as Reporter for the Uniform Parentage Act (1969-73), the Uniform Law Commissioners' Adoption Committee (1979-84), and the Uniform Putative Fathers Act (1985). He also he drafted the Uniform Parentage Act which has been adopted in nineteen states, including Illinois, and influenced many others. Elected to the American Law Institute in 1977, he now serves as advisor to an ambitious project on dissolution of marriage, a portion of which is the subject of Professor Oldham's article in this issue. Professor Ira Ellman, chief reporter for the ALI project, and Professor Margo Melli, the original reporter, are also contributors to this issue.

Internationally, Professor Krause was a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law from 1990-93, which drafted a treaty governing international adoptions. He is a member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and was U.S. reporter at Congresses in Uppsala (1966), Teheran (1974), Budapest (1978), Caracas (1983), Sydney (1986), and general reporter at Athens (1994).

Other professional activities have included the American Bar Association, the Illinois Bar Association, the American Association for the Comparative Study of Law, of which he has been a Director since 1980, and the International Society of Family Law, where he was Vice President from 1973-77 and a member of the Executive Council since. Professor Lynn Wardle, whose article on gay parenting appears in this issue, was recently named Secretary General of ISFL.

While his German Occupation Medal may be his favorite decoration, he has a long list of honors of which he can be very proud: Guggenheim Fellow (1969-70), Associate, University of Illinois Center for Advanced Study (1970, 1979), German Marshall Fund U.S. Fellow (1977-78), Hewlett Fellow, Australia (1984), German Academic Exchange Service Fellow (1984), and, most recently, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Prize in recognition of his outstanding accomplishments in research (1992).

As a teacher, Professor Krause found time to visit an interesting variety of institutions: Fulbright Professor at the University of Bonn (1976-77), Visiting Professor, University of Michigan (1981), Visiting Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford University (1984), Visiting Professor, University of Miami (1987), and Culverhouse Professor, Stetson University (1991). While at home at Illinois, Krause served as Alumni Distinguished Professor of Law from 1982-89 and Max L. Rowe Professor of Law from 1989-94.

In 1994, unwilling to actually retire but motivated to take advantage of the University's quirky retirement option, Krause took emeritus status but was quickly "rehired" to teach in the fall semester of each year. The new arrangement gives Professor Krause time to devote to writing and other professional activities but also allows him to enjoy his hobby--ocean sailing. After exploring the Florida keys in the aptly named "Nutshell," he has recently purchased a new sailboat, the "Lizzie K.," named for his granddaughter. Qualified by the U.S. Coast Guard as a charter captain, he is capable of taking paying passengers offshore in boats up to sixty-five feet.

As this issue goes to press, Professor Krause is looking forward to a summer filled with lectures and seminars at German universities and academic congresses and professional meetings in Germany, Switzerland, and South Africa. In the fall, he will be back at his post at the University of Illinois, teaching family law and family policy.