In Memory of Ernie Roberts

Cornell Law School mourns the loss of E.F. "Ernie" Roberts, Edwin H. Woodruff Professor of Law, Emeritus, who died on August 26 at the age of 95. A member of the faculty from 1957 until his retirement in 1995, Roberts was a transformative scholar of property and land-use law, a powerful classroom presence, and a deeply engaged university citizen.

Roberts began his career at Cornell after teaching at Villanova, quickly establishing himself as a dynamic teacher of property law. Though the subject was new to him at the time, he reshaped its pedagogy by weaving in questions of land use, planning, and regulation. He introduced land-use law to the curriculum, co-created Cornell's joint degree program in planning and law, and became a national leader in areas such as historic preservation, agricultural land protection, and environmental regulation. He also developed innovative teaching tools, including the widely remembered "Cornell Land Use Game."

In addition to his scholarship, Roberts played a vital role in guiding the Law School and the university during turbulent times. He served as secretary of the faculty and briefly as acting dean during the late 1960s, including the 1969 student takeover of Willard Straight Hall. "Ernie was a powerful presence in the classroom, a stimulating colleague, a scholar who brought his research to bear on the world around him, … an incredibly constructive university citizen," recalled Peter W. Martin, the Jane M.G. Foster Professor of Law, Emeritus, and former dean of Cornell Law School.

Students knew him for his rigor, wit, and booming classroom "bark," which signaled it was time to focus. He sought to make even the driest doctrines come alive. "Property can be a pretty droll subject, and I tried to find bits of humor in it. Isn't there a slight sense of absurdity in some of these great cases? That made it worth teaching," Roberts said in a 2015 interview conducted by Martin.

Alumni remember Roberts as a formative influence. "As if it were yesterday, I remember my first day of law school and indeed my very first class of law school," recalled Thomas J. Heiden '71, retired partner at Latham & Watkins. "The man at the front of the room looked somewhere between professorial and disheveled. He was prattling on about two men and a fox traipsing through some remote part of Long Island in 1801. At first, I was frightened: he is reading from ancient texts I never heard of, from authors I never heard of, in an English so old it is hard to follow. After a while I reassured myself: maybe the study of law is as simple as two guys chasing a fox. The man, of course, was Professor Ernie Roberts. The course was property. He was a giant, the last of the giants who gave me the foundation to become the lawyer I hope I became."

Roberts's influence extended well beyond the Law School. He served on land-use preservation commissions, advocated for farmland protection, and developed legal strategies to safeguard historic buildings. He also contributed to McCormick on Evidence, writing the section on judicial notice, and remained an active scholar well into his emeritus years.

Dean Jens David Ohlin remembered him as "one of the pillars of Cornell Law School … a powerful and inspiring teacher; among colleagues, a generous collaborator; and for the university, a steady and constructive leader."

Roberts is survived by his children, Martha, Ernest, Michael, and Marianne, along with five grandchildren, Michelle, William, Keenan, Delaney, and Alyssa, and two great-grandchildren, Callahan and Brynn.