The Gargoyle
The Gargoyle is the University of Wisconsin Law School's alumni magazine and serves as a cornerstone of alumni news and connection. This collection features digitized copies reaching back to its inception in 1969. Exploring the collection gives insight into the goings on each semester and how the Law School has (and has not) changed over the years.
Enjoy event photos, faculty and alumni updates, and stories like: “Campus Unrest: May 1970” from 1970, “Rose Bowl Lawyers” from 1981, “Law Curriculum 50 years ago” from 1986, “Profiles of Diversity: Four Members of the Class of 1989” from 1987, “First Woman Graduate: Bell Case LaFollette or Elsie Buck?” from 1991, “Supreme Court Justice Scalia Speaks At Law School” from 2001, “Habush Habush & Rottier Reading Room Dedicated” in 2007, and so much more!
But you may be asking... why "The Gargoyle"?
In 1963, when the existing Law School was demolished to make way for a new building, Law School Dean George Young found and rescued a sandstone gargoyle from the rubble. This figure and its departed twin had sat on the roof of the 1893 building for almost 70 years. While one of the pair supposedly had perished in its fall, the second had landed unscathed.
That rescued gargoyle, which is now permanently installed in the Law School’s atrium, gives its name to our alumni magazine and its online counterpart. It represents the indomitable strength and spirit of our University of Wisconsin Law School and its many graduates.
In 2019, after 70 long years, the second gargoyle that had been presumed missing was returned to the Law School. As the story goes, Law School Student Paul Been and a friend just so happened upon the gargoyle during the demolition of the old law school building and used a wheelbarrow to move it to safety. The Gargoyle became a fixture in the Been backyard in the following decades until the family decided to reunite the Gargoyles. Read the full story here "Missing Gargoyle returns".
Visit the Law School website for further information on the legend and lore of the Law School’s gargoyle.