It is with deep sadness that the UNC School of Law shares the news that Donald (Don) Clifford, a beloved friend, colleague and teacher to so many at UNC-Chapel Hill, died October 19, 2008, after a difficult illness.
Clifford held the Aubrey L. Brooks Professorship at UNC School of Law and contributed in numerous ways to the nation, the state and the law school community, including service as chair of virtually every single faculty committee, as advisor to the North Carolina Law Review for eight years, and as associate dean for academic affairs from 1979-1982 and again in 1989-90. Over the decades, he was invited to visit at the University of Texas, Louisiana State University, Duke, the University of Richmond and the University of Bristol in England. His honors included the Distinguished Service Award from the UNC Law Alumni Association in 1991 and an award for Distinguished Achievement in Education from the University of Colorado in the same year.
Clifford received his A.B. degree magna cum laude from Catholic University in 1957. Between college and law school, he served as executive vice president of the United States Student Association, working with Allard Lowenstein and other national leaders. He later received his J.D. from the University of Colorado in 1963, where he was an editor of the Colorado Law Review and was elected to Order of the Coif. After clerking for the chief judge of the United States District Court for Colorado, he joined the UNC School of Law faculty in 1964, where he served until his retirement in 2004.
He specialized in sales, secured transactions, and commercial law. He was coauthor of several leading texts on commercial and corporate law, and served on the American Bar Association committee on the revision of Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, where he helped to shape the development of consumer law protections and other important provisions of federal and state law. He was also active in the North Carolina Bar Association, where he was an officer and newsletter editor for the Business Law section who lectured at various continuing legal education institutes. He worked with the North Carolina General Statutes Commission on legislative proposals dealing with North Carolina corporate, securities and commercial law.
"As this law school community well realizes, Don was also a wise, generous spirit with great insight, unshakable decency, a dry, self-deprecating wit, and unfailing compassion," Dean Jack Boger wrote in a message to the School of Law community. "He will be irreplaceable."
In 1991, Clifford conceived and directed the first UNC Festival of Legal Learning, the School of Law's signature continuing legal education program. The Festival sought to provide members of the profession with an engaging and wide-ranging array of offerings presented by members of the School of Law faculty, colleagues from the UNC Institute of Government, and talented lawyers and judges from around the state. At its inception, the Festival sought to raise funds to support the UNC Law Library during a time of budget cuts. Since its start the program has grown to include approximately 100 presentations and draw nearly 500 attendees, many of whom return year after year. The Festival has for many years included a mini-symposium on consumer law and consumer credit issues, drawing on Clifford's leadership and his commitment to the development of this field.
The School of Law and friends of Clifford recently established the Donald F. Clifford Jr. Distinguished Lecture on Consumer Law to be offered during the February 2009 UNC Festival of Legal Learning and thereafter as a tribute to Clifford's many contributions to the profession and his vision for a more just society in which consumers are protected from unfair risks. The school plans to invite a distinguished national figure to speak each year at a dinner in Clifford's honor, and to engage both members of the profession and law students in dialogue about related issues.
Beyond his many, many professional achievements, Clifford was an active member of St. Thomas More Catholic Church and choir, the former Chairman of Parish Advisory Council, and a member and soloist with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Community Chorus, participating as a vocalist in many concerts and traveling most recently with the Chorus on a South American tour.
Clifford is survived by his wife Louise, five daughters, and many adoring grandchildren. A funeral mass will be held on Tuesday, October 28th at 1:00 pm at St. Thomas Moore Catholic Church, 940 Carmichael Street (adjacent to 15-501 Bypass south of Raleigh Road just prior to the Old Mason Farm/Finley Golf Course exit).