The Papers of Charles O. Gregory

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 was 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.” Gregory died in 1987.