David Fellman


David Fellman was a political scientist and constitutional scholar and advocate for academic freedom. He taught general constitutional law, administrative law and civil liberties. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska and studies at the University of Nebraska before transferring to Yale University and receiving his Ph.D. in philosophy. He returned to the University of Nebraska as a professor until relocating to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1947, and remaining there until his retirement. He became involved in Wisconsin state government and participated in several commissions and panels which helped review and eventually recommend constitutional changes.

Life and career

In 1905, the Fellmans immigrated to Omaha, Nebraska with two very young sons from what was then known as Volhynia, Belarus. David was the third born of a brood that would grow to seven: six boys and one girl. When David was 21, he lost an older brother and a few years later, his father passed too.
David Fellman attended Omaha Central High School where he was president of the Mathematics society, a member of the Speakers Bureau and on the debate teams that won the district championship in 1924-25 and the state championship in 1925. He won the state contest in extemporaneous speaking.
He taught Hebrew in a religious school to support himself while attending University of Nebraska in Lincoln. As an undergraduate, he was on the debate team for three years. He was a member of Nebraska's “Think-Shop” and was elected to Delta Sigma Rho, the national debating honorary society, in May 1927, serving as president of that organization for one year. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity, and was a reader for the political science department. For two years, he wrote a semi-weekly column in The Daily Nebraskan, official student newspaper entitled “A Student Looks at Public Affairs."
He received his A.B. in 1929, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa; he also received an M.A. in 1930 from the University of Nebraska. He was granted a teaching fellowship by the University of Nebraska in the political science department while pursuing work to prepare for his doctoral degree. In 1931, Fellman transferred to Yale University, having been the recipient of the Cowles fellowship in government. He studied political theory under Dr. Francis Coker, then a scholarship in philosophy in 1932, then the Sterling fellowship in government in 1933. He was awarded the Ph.D. from Yale University in 1934.
He taught at the University of Nebraska from 1934 to 1947 and the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1947 until he retired in 1979. He maintained an office in North Hall at UW–Madison through the late 1980s. One newspaper remembered him as "beloved of generations of students who were attracted by his friendliness and charm as well as his intellectual stature." One former student, David Obey, wrote of him, "Anyone who remembers John Houseman’s portrayal of the law professor in The Paper Chase will know what Fellman was like – intimidating, tough, clipped, proper, dry, acerbic.”
His books include The Censorship of Books, The Defendant’s Rights, The Limits of Freedom, The Supreme Court and Education, The Constitutional Rights of Association, Religion in American Public Law, The Defendant's Rights Under English Law, and The Defendant's Rights Today.
He wrote an annual article for the American Political Science Review from 1949 to 1961 on constitutional law, reviewing the prior year's work of the U.S. Supreme Court. His other writings include numerous articles published in law and political science journals, contributions to various encyclopedias and single chapters to a number of books.
In the 1960s, Fellman became active in Wisconsin state government. He wrote speeches for Governors Gaylord A. Nelson and John W. Reynolds, Jr. In 1959, he was appointed to the governor's Commission on Human Rights and served for nine years. They initiated surveys and drafted legislation, such as the fair housing bill submitted to the state legislature in 1965. In 1960 and 1963, he was named to the Governor's Commission on Constitutional Revision. They were tasked with "drafting of the actual texts of suitable constitutional amendments, the publicizing of their purpose and the promotion of their adoption." Among the notable changes that resulted was the increase of the term for governor from two years to four years beginning in 1970. In 1970, he was appointed by Chief Justice E. Harold Hallows of the Wisconsin Supreme Court to be chairman of the Committee to Recommend Rules on Use of Sound and Camera Equipment in the Courtroom and to advise the court and develop specific recommendations for use of such equipment, which was prohibited at that time.
Fellman was president of the Midwest Political Science Association, 1955–1956, founding editor of that association's Midwest Journal of Political Science, 1957–1959, vice president of the American Political Science Association, 1959–1960; and on the board of editors for The American Political Science Review of the received the Governmental Affairs Award from the Social Science Research Council, 1959-1960; senior research Fulbright fellow, Great Britain, 1961–1962; holder of research grants from the Fund for the Republic, 1957–1958 and the Social Science Research Council, 1959–1960; and recipient of an honorary degree from the University of Nebraska, 1966.
Until the 1960s, the University of Wisconsin-Madison lacked any endowed chairs. When the Vilas estate, bequeathed to the University in 1908, first became available for distribution, the first step was creation of several Vilas professorships, awarded by campus-wide competition. David Fellman was among the first group, named in 1962. He held the chair until his retirement.
Fellman was a member of the American Association of University Professors for sixty-one years, on its Committee A from 1957 to 1971, chaired it from 1959 to 1964, was president of the AAUP from 1964 to 1966 and continued as a member of the Governing Board of its Legal Defense Fund into the 1990s.

Books

Father of Michael Fellman, Professor Emeritus of History, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada