In Memoriam
Michael Landon
Michael deLaval Landon (1935-2021), a longtime good and faithful servant of the Society and Professor of History at the University of Mississippi, was born to Brigadier General Arthur Henry Whittington Landon, OBE, and Elizabeth Worthington Fair Landon in St. Johns, New Brunswick. Michael spent his early childhood in Canada. When his father retired to England after World War II, Michael began his academic studies at Eastbourne College, later winning a scholarship to Oxford University, where he received his B.A. and M.A. in History.
After teaching at Manor House School in Horsham, England, Dalhousie School in Ladybank, Scotland, and Lakefield College School, Canada, Michael enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in History. In 1964, he joined the history faculty at the University of Mississippi, where his academic career included imparting knowledge to undergraduate and graduate students for more than four decades, along the way serving as acting director of the University Library and acting Chair of Modern Languages.
Michael authored two dozen articles, the majority of them concerning modern British history, and five books, focusing on both that subject and the legal profession in Mississippi.
Michael’s first book, expanding upon his doctoral dissertation, was The Triumph of the Lawyers: Their Role in English Politics, 1678-1689 (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1970). He concluded that the bloodless Revolution of 1688-89 could well be seen as the essential first step toward the establishment of parliamentary democracy in Great Britain and that, accordingly, both the Revolution itself and the triumph of the Whig lawyers that it represented may rightly be labeled “Glorious.”
Michael’s second major contribution to British history was Erin and Britannia: The Historical Background of a Modern Tragedy (Chicago, IL: Nelson Hall,1981), which traced the conflicted past of the British Isles from Ireland’s first settlement around 6000 B.C. through the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922.
The other major strain in Michael’s scholarship evinces (remarkably enough, in light of his upbringing) a spirited patriotism in chronicling the history of his adopted state’s lawyers and legal institutions. Witness three works whose full titles aptly describe their contents: The Honor & Dignity of the Profession: A History of the Mississippi State Bar, 1906-1976 (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1979); The Challenge of Service: A History of the Mississippi Bar’s Young Lawyers, 1936-1986 (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1995); and The University of Mississippi School of Law: A Sesquicentennial History (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2006).
But there was more than scholarship. Those who really knew Michael Landon recognized and treasured, most of all, his deep commitment to service, whether as a beloved lay reader and Sunday school teacher at his church or as a member, and later chair, of the Oxford, MS, City Housing Authority for 30 years.
We who are members of the American Society for Legal History remember most gratefully Michael’s service, in so many capacities, over the decades: as co-editor of the Society’s Newsletter, member of the Board of Directors, Secretary, and then Secretary-Treasurer (a combined office that demonstrated powerfully the Society’s supreme confidence that its affairs were utterly safe in his hands).
Michael deLaval Landon, while hampered in his later years by Alzheimer’s, remained ever charming, well-mannered, even courtly, and a born raconteur. A true gentleman and scholar, he could converse with anyone on nearly any topic, never losing his capacity to show kindness and respect to all he met.
He was, to the end, the same person we had known all along. Look again at the photo that accompanies these observations. Is that the kindly, contented, good-humored Michael Landon you remember from the last time you saw him at the Annual Meeting? Not at all. That’s Michael on his 85th birthday! Still our Michael.
(Craig Joyce)