Charles Edward Wyzanski, Jr

Background

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Wyzanski received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1927 and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1930.

Career

After entering private practice in Boston in 1930, he served as a law clerk to two judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, with Augustus Noble Hand from 1930 to 1931, and, after briefly resuming private practice, with Learned Hand in 1932. Wyzanski then returned to private practice in Boston until 1933, when he became a solicitor of labor for the United States Department of Justice. From 1935 to 1937, he was a special assistant to the Attorney General in the Office of the Solicitor General. He was again in private practice in Boston from 1937 to 1941.

On December 1, 1941, Wyzanski was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated by Hugh Dean McLellan. Wyzanski was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 16, 1941, and received his commission on December 19, 1941. He also served as a public member of the National Defense Mediation Board from 1941 to 1942. He held several teaching posts during his judgeship, serving as a lecturer in government at Harvard University from 1942 to 1943; lecturer in law at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1949 to 1950; Herman Phleger Professor of Law at Stanford University from 1973 to 1974; and Pappas Distinguished Scholar at Boston University Law School in 1986.

Wyzanski served as chief judge of the District of Massachusetts from 1965 to 1971, assuming senior status on September 1, 1971. and continuing to serve not only as a District Judge but by invitation on eight of the eleven circuits of the U.S. Courts of Appeal until his death in 1986.

Hiss Case

Wyzanski was a friend of both Alger Hiss and William L. Marbury, Jr.. Before meeting with Hiss in September 1948 regarding a pending libel suit, Marbury met with Wyzanski, who apprised Marbury that Hiss was receiving advice not to sue Whittaker Chambers.

Legacy

Harvard Law School Library, Harvard University owns the Wyzanski, Charles E. (Charles Edward). Papers, 1930-1968. The collection is described in the online finding aid as: "The Papers of Charles E. Wyzanski Jr. span the years 1930 to 1968. The Papers consist mainly of correspondence; seventeen items are printed legal briefs, memoranda and other types of legal documents.

Judge Wyzanski's correspondence is with friends and associates and is of a personal-professional nature. It includes both letters received and carbons of letters sent. Many of the people under whom Wyzanski worked, such as U.S. Court of Appeals Judges Augustus Noble Hand and Learned Hand, or his teachers at the Harvard Law School such as Felix Frankfurter, became close friends of his. Correspondence concerns Wyzanski's professional and personal life, national matters, and Harvard affairs. There are complete sequences of his correspondence with Charles Culp Burlingham, 1934-1959, and Learned Hand, 1932-1961. Originals of his letters to Burlingham and Hand are in the respective Papers of the two men in the Harvard Law School Library. Among other prominent correspondents were: Bailey Aldrich; Hugo L. Black; Kingman Brewster; Ralph Bunche; McGeorge Bundy; Arthur J. Goldberg; Edward M. Kennedy; Frances Perkins; Nathan M. Pusey; Stanley Forman Reed; Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Leverett Saltonstall; Adlai Stevenson; Earl Warren; and Alfred North Whitehead.

The seventeen printed items (1936-1940), some bound, some unbound, are from Judge Wyzanski's Washington years, particularly from his service as special assistant to the Attorney General of the U.S., and on the staff of the Solicitor General of the U.S.

The group of papers given to the Harvard Law School Library in 1984 relate to the origin of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935; all materials are photocopies.

The unprocessed collection Charles E. Wyzanski papers, ca. 1920-1986 consisting of 34 cartons is now held by the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, MA and is currently closed to researchers pending processing. According to the MHS catalog record, the collection is described as "Papers of Judge Charles E. Wyzanski consist of both personal and professional materials. Personal papers include correspondence with family and friends, autobiographical writings, speeches and addresses, articles, and lectures; items pertaining to Harvard University, various foundations, and clubs to which he belonged; and some materials from his school days at Phillips Exeter Academy. Professional papers include legal opinion files, most related to his position as a U.S. Federal appeals judge; notes on cases; articles and clippings; professional correspondence; personnel files; and other administrative papers. Correspondents include Felix Frankfurter, Learned Hand, Augustus N. Hand, and Henry W. Bragdon, among many others."

Judge Wyzanski was interviewed for the Oral History Project of Columbia University by Harlan Phillips in 1954, entitled "The Reminiscences of Charles E. Wyzanski."