Obituary of Bayless Manning

Dr. Bayless Manning, former dean of Stanford Law School, and one of America's foremost authorities on corporate law, died peacefully in his home in Boise, Idaho, surrounded by his loved ones, on September 18, 2011. He was 88. Bayless was the quintessential Renaissance man. He loved to travel, sail, ski, play tennis, listen to jazz, and dance. He was an accomplished artist and architect. But he was most passionate about connecting friends and acquaintances to one another—and innumerable people continue to derive lasting benefits from these efforts. Of the many talents that he possessed, one that was clearly instrumental in his success in life, was his command of language. Although he mastered Latin, and has at one time or another spoken Japanese, Norwegian, German, French, Spanish, and Hawaiian, he would generally write in English. His target audience was, as he put it, "a reasonably intelligent, English-speaking 14-year old." He felt that if he could explain something to her, anyone would understand it. His writing was uncluttered and he always preferred to avoid grand words when simpler ones would do. Friend and colleague James J. Hanks, Jr. said of Bayless, "Although he writes with greater elegance than any lawyer I have known, it is the elegance of uncluttered clarity, focus, and brevity—like the writing of another lawyer, Lincoln." Bayless's remarkable career as a public servant, legal scholar, educator, and businessman began during World War II. He raced through Yale College in two years at the head of his class. Then, as part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps at the age of nineteen, he was instrumental in decrypting the supposedly unbreakable Japanese "Purple" code. He later graduated from Yale Law School (where he was editor in chief of the Yale Law Journal) with highest honors, and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stanley F. Reed. After serving as a law clerk, he moved to Cleveland to work at the law firm of Jones, Day, Cockley & Reavis. Bayless was asked to serve on the faculty of Yale Law School at age 33. As a member of the faculty at Yale, he wrote several pioneering articles and textbooks on corporate law principles that underpin much of the U.S. corporate structure today. While Europe today retains many of the outdated legal codes Bayless attacked as "worthless," the U.S. states rewrote many of their rules due in part to his critique. In addition to his research in corporate law, Manning was also a prominent scholar in legal ethics. In 2001 he was honored by the U.S. government with a Certificate of Meritorious Achievement and a pronouncement that "few persons have made a greater contribution to the field of Federal conflict of interest law in the past forty or fifty years." He left Yale after five years of service to be the special assistant to the under secretary of state in the Kennedy administration. During this period, Bayless co-founded the Peace Corps in South America. In 1964, Bayless was appointed dean of Stanford Law School. His former boss, Dean Eugene V. Rostow of Yale Law, said of him: "Manning is one of the shiniest fish ever to come out of the sea. He has the drive, charm and quickness to do anything." During his six-year tenure as Dean, Bayless was, according to Time Magazine, " . . . instrumental in turning a good law school into a great one." In 1971 he served as the first president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Thereafter, Bayless had a brilliant career as a partner at one of the nation's most prestigious law firms, New York-based Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Bayless served on the board of directors of several publicly held corporations at home and abroad and as a trustee for a variety of non-profit institutions, including Albertson College of Idaho, Carnegie Hall, Yale University, New York Law School, Sun Valley Forum on National Health, and The Urban Institute. He was a founding board member of Boise-based Internet company Keynetics. He was the chief legal officer on the board of directors of Argentinian oil-giant YPF SA from 1993 until 2001. While serving on the board of directors of YPF SA he met and fell in love with Alexandra Zekovic. Bayless and Alexandra married in 1994 and moved to Boise. Bayless is survived by his wife, Alexandra, his children Bay, Elizabeth, Lucia, Matthew, and Nevenka, and his grandchildren Eryn, Carly, Hannah, Joseph, Dylan, and Nathan. A private celebration of Bayless's life will be held in Boise, Idaho, on Friday, October 14, 2011. If you are interested in attending, please contact Joie Mason at jam@keynetics.com or at 208-489-3345.