Friedrich Kessler; Legal Scholar Taught at Yale, UC Berkeley

Friedrich “Fritz” Kessler, 96, German legal scholar who fled Nazis to teach at Yale and UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall. Born in Hechingen, Germany, Kessler was educated at the universities of Tubingen, Munich and Marburg and was a research member of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Foreign and International Law in Berlin. In 1934, he and his wife, Eva, immigrated to the U.S. with the help of a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. Kessler spent most of his teaching career at Yale, and also taught at the University of Chicago Law School and at Boalt Hall from 1970 until 1977. He was an expert in comparing European and American civil law and on contract law. On Jan. 21 in Berkeley.