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5
SEPT. 12, 2003
•
Retired law professor named legend In
environmental law at state conference
By Andrew Bell/Staff Reparter
Last month during the 15 th Annuai
Texas
Enviro nmental
Superconference, retired Texas Tech
law professor Frank Skillern was announced a "Legend of Texas Environmental Law."
"I wasn't even prepared fo'r it,"
Skillern said.
He was surprised, he said, because
this was the first time the sPonsors of
the event, the Environmental and
Natural Resources Law Section of the
State Bar of Texas, had ever presented
the award.
Skillern received the award to
honor his retirement and thecontributions that he made to Tech, the law
school, the ,State Bar of Texas, and
environmental and water law, former
colleagues said.
"The award was extremely well
deserved. There is no one more dedicated than him," Charles Bubany,
Tech law professor, said.
Skillern began his career at Tech
in fall 1971.
He soon became involved with
many members of the faculty and
worked with many in their mutual
interests, Bubany said. '
Many of Skillern's interests in- '
volve environmental and water law.
When Skillern began Writing one of
his books, "Environmental Protection
Deskbook," he combined his interests
with other faculty, inc~uding Bubany,
to help write the bopk.
Law professor Dan Benson also
helped contribute to Skillern's book.
Benson helped write chapters 12 and
13, which involve the constitutional
issues of environmental protection
law and the criminal enforcement of
the laws, he said.
"Once it was done,
the book was quite
big. It's 984 pages and
I believe it is still being used in theprofession," Benson said.
In 1979, Skillern
helped to begin the
Environmental and
Natural Resources
Law Secti,o n of the
State Bar of Texas.
For his work in helping the section begin:'he was elected to the chair
of the section in 1983, he said.
Involvement with the section
helped to begin an annual job fair the
section sponsors. As the section began to grow, Skillern helped to set up
the speakers for the event.
During the remainder of his tenure, he worked as a law school liai-
son to the section, he said.
During his tenure, Skillern was
presented with the George W.
McCleskey Professor of Water Law
for his work with water laws, something Bubany said was well-deserved.
"The McCleskey award was given
to him because of his
contributions to water law," he said.
Skillern's other
work with water law
included many written works. Skillern
I,
said he wrote a water
la~ book and many
articles dealing with
the subject.
One thing that
has made Skillern such a well-respected professor is his interests in
seeing people succeed, law brofessor
Bruce Kramer said.
'
"He has always been very interested in seeing students succeed,"
Kramer said.
Skillern set up a counseling prograin that is committed to bringing
in students to the law school, Kramer
said.
Most students of the law school
are there because of their grades; The
program that Skillern began is an
admissions program that admits students who do not have the numeric
scores, but do have other qualities
that the law school looks for.
Benson said despite the time that
Skillern spent on writing books and
being a professor, he still took the
time to be involved as a counselor of
the Rape Crisis Center, Benson said.
Outside of campus, Skillern has
participated in many activities that
involve his interest with environmental a~d water law. Recently, he '
was a consultant on studies that were
done with the Edwards Aquifer, he
said.
His other work included being a
member of an environmental review'
team that went to Yucca Mountain.
The work involved the handling of
water rights and environmental justice issues, Skillern said.
Skillern retired on Aug. 31, and
' now resides in Boise, Idaho. He
spends his time split between his
home in Boise and his cabin on Lake
McCall, he said.