John Otis Honnold Jr. (December 5, 1915 – January 21, 2011) was the William A. Schnader Professor of Commercial Law at the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

Biography

Honnold was born in

Kansas, Illinois } Kansas is a village in Kansas Township, Edgar County, Illinois. The population was 670 at the 2020 census. Geography Kansas is located in southwest Edgar County approximately 1.2 miles from the Edgar- Coles county line. The community is at the ...

, to John Otis and Louretta (Wright) Honnold, and lived in

Swarthmore, Pennsylvania Swarthmore ( , ) is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Swarthmore was originally named "Westdale" in honor of noted painter Benjamin West, who was one of the early residents of the town. The name was changed to "Swarthmore" after the ...

, and

Kennett Square, Pennsylvania Kennett Square is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known as the Mushroom Capital of the World because mushroom farming in the region produces over 500 million pounds of mushrooms a year, totaling half of the United ...

. He graduated from Paris High School in Illinois. Honnold then earned a bachelor's degree in economics and government from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Uni ...

in 1936, and a law degree from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

in 1939, where he was an editor of the ''

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...

''. He was awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Scholarship award, a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

, and the Theberge Prize for Private International Law. Honnold worked at the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

for five years. During World War II he worked as chief of the Court Review Branch in the Chief Counsel's Office of Price Administration. He began his career in private practice at a New York law firm, Wright, Gordon, Zachry & Parlin. Honnold was the William A. Schnader Professor of Commercial Law at the

, after joining the school's faculty in 1946. His academic focus was

private international law Conflict of laws (also called private international law) is the set of rules or laws a jurisdiction applies to a case, transaction, or other occurrence that has connections to more than one jurisdiction. This body of law deals with three broad ...

. His writings included ''Sales Transactions: Domestic and International Law'' (with

Curtis Reitz Curtis Randall Reitz (born November 20, 1929) is the Algernon Sydney Biddle Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Biography Reitz was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. His father was a jeweler, and his mother was a teacher ...

) and ''Security Interests in Personal Property'' (with Steven Harris and Charles W. Mooney Jr.). Honnold died on January 21, 2011, at 95 years of age.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Honnold, John Harvard Law School alumni University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni Scholars of contract law People from Illinois People from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania Illinois lawyers International law scholars Scholars of property law Fulbright alumni