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On March 30, 2010, Professor Mary Harter Mitchell, who passed away in November, 2009 was awarded the 2010 IUPUI Inspirational Woman Award from the Women’s Leadership Awards Selection Committee. On April 16, 2010 she will also posthumously receive the 2010 Alvin S. Bynum Award for Excellence in Academic Mentoring by a faculty member at the Chancellor’s Honors Convocation. Professor Mitchell was also selected by the graduating Class of 2010 as a J.D. hooder for the commencement ceremony. She will be represented by her friend and colleague Professor Florence Wagman Roisman.

All are invited to attend a Celebration of the Life and Work of Professor Mary Harter Mitchell on May 16, 2010 in the Wynne Coutroom of Inlow Hall. See the event listing for more details.

Professor Mary Harter Mitchell passed away on November 4, 2009, at the age of 56.

Professor Mitchell, who was named the Alan H. Cohen Professor of Law in 2004, was well loved by everyone in the law school family. She joined the school’s faculty in 1980 and taught contracts, as well as courses in elder law, law and religion, and prisoners’ rights. During her nearly 30-year tenure at the school, she served on virtually every faculty committee, including the Executive Committee. She has served as the faculty advisor for five student organizations, including Law Students Against Capital Punishment; Women’s Caucus; Lambda Law Society; Society on Law and Conscience and the Dean’s Tutorial Society. She is the author of Legal Reference for Older Hoosiers, a book on legal issues of special concern to older citizens in Indiana. She was the recipient of an IU Trustees’ Teaching Award in 2003.

“Mary was a beloved member of our family who will be missed in ways that cannot be described. Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are certainly with Mary’s husband Frank and her daughters Sally and Clara,” said law school Dean Gary R. Roberts.

Mitchell, a 1975 Butler University graduate, earned her law degree from Cornell Law School.