Robert Treuhaft | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 8, 1912
New York City, U.S. |
| Died | November 11, 2001 (aged 89)
New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater |
Harvard University (1934) Harvard Law School ( LL.B., 1937) |
| Occupation(s) | Attorney, political activist |
| Spouse | |
Robert Edward Treuhaft (August 8, 1912 – November 11, 2001) was an American lawyer and the second husband of Jessica Mitford. [1]
Early life
Robert Treuhaft was born on August 8, 1912, in New York City. He was the son of Hungarian Jewish immigrants. [2] He graduated from Harvard University in 1934 and attained his LL.B. degree from Harvard Law School in 1937. [3]
Career
Treuhaft worked for labor union and radical left causes much of his life. From the early-to-mid-1940s to 1958 he and Mitford were members of the Communist Party USA, leaving the party after Khrushchev's revelations about the Stalin era. [4]
Treuhaft was admitted to the California Bar in 1944, [5] and in 1945, he began at the Oakland, California law firm Grossman, Sawyer, & Edises. In 1963, he founded his own Oakland-based firm Treuhaft, Walker, and Bernstein, [3] where Hillary Clinton worked as a summer intern in 1971. [6] Also in 1963, he provided Mitford with background and legal information that was important for Mitford's best-selling exposé of the funeral industry, which he also unofficially co-authored, The American Way of Death. [7]
In 1964, Treuhaft represented more than 700 Free Speech Movement students arrested during a two-day sit-in at the University of California in Berkeley. He and his firm also represented anti-Vietnam War protesters, Black Panther Party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). [3]
Before his death, Treuhaft specified that any memorial donations be sent to "Send a Piano to Havana" project, which was started by his son Benjamin Treuhaft, whom the State Department had prevented from taking a piano to the embargoed island. [8]
Death
Treuhaft died on November 11, 2001.
References
- ^ Lewis, Paul (December 2, 2001). "Robert Treuhaft, Lawyer Who Inspired Funeral Exposé, Dies at 89". The New York Times.
- ^ Childhood and Family Life in New York; Undergraduate Education; Harvard Law School (interview with Bob Treuhaft, 1988) cdlib.org. Page 2.
- ^ a b c "Guide to the Robert E. Treuhaft Papers TAM.664". Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive.
- ^ "Bay Area Funeral Society; The American Way of Death; Berkeley Co-op Activities; Resigning from the Communist Party" (Interview with Bob Treuhaft, 1988) cdlib.org. Pages 70-72.
- ^ "Attorney Search". The State Bar of California.
- ^ Bernstein, Carl (2007). A Woman in Charge. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 105–. ISBN 978-0-307-26848-8.
- ^ Hartley, Cathy (2003). A Historical Dictionary of British Women. London: Europa publications. ISBN 978-1-85743-228-2. Page 319.
- ^ Oliver, Myrna (November 16, 2001). "Robert Treuhaft, 89; Crusading Attorney". Los Angeles Times.
External links
- Consumers Cooperative of Berkeley Oral History Collection
- Spartacus Educational biography
- Paul Lewis (December 2, 2001). "Robert Treuhaft, Lawyer Who Inspired Funeral Exposé, Dies at 89". The New York Times.
-
"Robert E. Treuhaft: Civil rights lawyer and inspiration behind the writings of Jessica Mitford". November 16, 2001. Archived from the original on December 19, 2013.
{{ cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL ( link). (archived from mitford.org) - Photographs of Robert Treuhaft cdlib.org
- Send a Piana to Havana
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- American communists
- Lawyers from New York City
- Lawyers from Oakland, California
- Writers from New York City
- Writers from Oakland, California
- American people of Hungarian descent
- 1912 births
- 2001 deaths
- American civil rights lawyers
- American male writers
- Harvard Law School alumni
- American law biography stubs