Harry R. Trusler (Dean, 1915-1947)

Harry Trusler was one of the two original full-time faculty members at the University of Florida College of Law and the school’s longest-serving dean. Born in Kansas and educated at the University of Arizona and the University of Michigan, he practiced law in Oklahoma and taught at Stetson University before coming to UF. Under his leadership, UF’s College of Law admitted its first female students, became the first law school in the South to require graduates to also hold a four-year undergraduate academic degree and offered its first three-year law course of study. Trusler campaigned for and oversaw the building of a library expansion to Bryan Hall, which was completed in 1941 and later proved crucial in dealing with the post-World War II boom in enrollment. Trusler was popular with students; for more than thirty years, students observed a tradition of applauding whenever he entered the classroom. After his retirement in 1947, a dormitory building was named in Trusler’s honor.