The Obvious Choice: Wydicks Fund Student Scholarships

For King Hall Professor Emeritus Richard Wydick and his wife Judy, there's no time like the present for supporting scholarships at UC Davis School of Law.  The Wydicks not only made a planned gift in 2008 that will ultimately establish a scholarship endowment, but also have made gifts each year since in order to make scholarship awards available immediately.

"We feel we've been fortunate in life, and when the time came when we were in position to make a charitable donation, supporting UC Davis law students was the obvious choice," said Wydick.

Wydick joined the Law School faculty in 1971, and was a fixture at King Hall until his retirement in 2003, teaching Evidence, Antitrust Law, Professional Responsibility, Advanced Legal Writing, and "what's now called Intellectual Property, though it used to be called Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, and Unfair Competition," he said. 

Wydick served as Acting Dean of the Law School in 1978-80 and received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1983. He has authored books on ethics, evidence, and good writing, including the esteemed legal writing guide Plain English for Lawyers.  Wydick has received honors including the Golden Pen Award from the Legal Writing Institute and a lifetime achievement award from Scribes, the American Society of Legal Writers, in recognition of contributions to legal writing.

"My wife Judy and I have led charmed lives in many ways, one of which, of course, was coming to Davis," said Wydick.  "So when it came time to do our estate planning, she and I decided that it would be appropriate to do something for students of our Law School.  We were fortunate enough to be able to do that with an IRA designation, which of course takes effect only when I die.  But for a variety of reasons, we have decided to also make an annual gift so that the scholarship can be distributed now."

Wydick explained that part of the reason they decided to make the annual gifts was that he and his wife have reached the age-70 and one-half years old-when they are required by law to remove some of the money in their IRA, and that much of what they removed would be paid in taxes unless given to a charitable organization.  "For us, the obvious choice was to give to UC Davis and the School of Law," he said.

 "We haven't indicated in any way what sort of students ought to get it, leaving that preferably to the administrators of scholarships at the Law School," he said.  "We trust them to choose someone who is both in need and has great promise."

For more information on scholarships at King Hall, go here.