Terrance “Terry” Sandalow, who served as dean of Michigan Law from 1978 to 1987 and was a member of the faculty for 34 years, died at his Washington, D.C., home on January 29, 2022. He was 87.
A native of Chicago, Dean Sandalow received his bachelor’s and juris doctor degrees from the University of Chicago in 1954 and 1957, respectively. He was the first in his family to attend college, and after graduating from law school he served as a law clerk for the Hon. Sterry W. Waterman of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for Associate Justice Potter Stewart of the United States Supreme Court.
Sandalow practiced law in Chicago before beginning his academic career in 1961 at the University of Minnesota Law School. He joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Law School in 1966 as professor of law and was named the Edson R. Sunderland Professor of Law after his deanship ended in 1987. A respected scholar who specialized in constitutional law and theory, as well as local government, Sandalow was well known for both his love of the Law School and for his spirit of inquiry.
As he once told The New York Times, “You come to Ann Arbor if you’re curious, if you’re committed to the intellectual life.”
He retired from active faculty status in 2000, after a distinguished career of teaching, administration, and research.
“I always regarded Terry as the intellectual leader of my generation on the faculty. I didn’t always agree with Terry’s answers to some of the major issues that came before us—but I always agreed with his questions. One could not have asked for a more ardent exponent of the life of the mind,” says friend and former colleague Ted St. Antoine, ’54, the James E. & Sarah A. Degan Professor Emeritus of Law.
Sandalow was the co-author of a path-breaking casebook, Government in Urban Areas. He was widely published on topics including the role of the Supreme Court, federalism, constitutional interpretation, and judicial review.
During his tenure as dean, the Smith Library addition—revolutionary because it was underground—was built. His tenure also saw the expansion of the Law School’s global footprint, with the establishment of the Michigan Journal of International Law in 1979 and the launching of the Bates Overseas Fellowship program in 1982.
Sandalow was preceded in death by his wife of nearly 70 years, Ina, in 2020. He is survived by his children, David, Marc, and Judith; daughters-in-law, Holly and Marcie; seven grandchildren; multiple great-grandchildren; and five siblings.
