Gerald Fridman, a giant of private law in Canada, passed away on Friday, November 24, 2017. He was 89.
The funeral will be held on Friday, December 1 at 10am at Logan Funeral Home, 371 Dundas Street, London, Ontario.
In 2016 Western University awarded Gerald an honorary degree. The text of the citation is below. I think it can also serve, at least in part, as a memorial to his life as a scholar.
Stephen
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Gerald Henry Louis Fridman is an extraordinarily accomplished scholar of Canadian law. His research and writing on private law has influenced generations of scholars, students, lawyers, law reformers and judges. He is the only Canadian legal academic who has written and revised leading treatises on five different areas of Canadian law: contract, tort, unjust enrichment, sale of goods, and agency.
Gerald was born in 1928 in London, England. He attended St. John’s College at the University of Oxford where he earned a BA, BCL and MA. He also earned a Master of Laws from the University of Adelaide. He was admitted as a barrister-at-law of the Middle Temple in England and as a barrister and solicitor in South Australia, Alberta, and Ontario.
Gerald has held academic positions at the University of Adelaide, University College London, the University of Sheffield, and the University of Alberta, serving as Dean of its Faculty of Law from 1970 to 1975. But first and foremost, for over 40 years, Gerald has been associated with the University of Western Ontario. He joined our Faculty of Law in 1975 and became an emeritus professor in 1994. Since then he has maintained an office in the Faculty and continues to spend much of his time there. The ongoing development of the law, it would seem, has precluded retirement.
He published his first book in 1960 and his next book is due out in 2017. In between he has written over thirty books and is best known for seven editions of The Law of Agency, six editions of The Law of Contract in Canada, six editions of Sale of Goods in Canada, and three editions of The Law of Torts in Canada. In addition he has published scores of articles, major papers, case notes, comments, and book reviews. He has done all of this without access to the internet.
Gerald’s scholarship was first cited as authority by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1979. Since then he has been cited in over 50 decisions of the country’s highest court and in hundreds of lower court decisions. His influence extends well beyond Canada, having been cited as authority by the highest courts of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
He was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1990 and a Queen’s Counsel by Ontario in 1985. He won the Walter Owen Book Prize for distinguished writing on Canadian law and the David W. Mundell Medal for his outstanding contribution to law and letters in Ontario.
Gerald’s ongoing commitment to research continues to benefit the private law scholars currently teaching and researching at Western. We are very fortunate to have him as a colleague. He also serves as a mentor to younger lawyers in his role as counsel at Cohen Highley LLP in London.
While passionate about private law, Gerald also takes great joy in theatre and opera and in his family, most notably Janet Fridman, his spouse of 57 years.
Mr. Chancellor, on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor and in the name of the Senate, I ask you to confer the degree of Doctor of Civil Law, honoris causa, upon Gerald Fridman, distinguished Canadian private law scholar.
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Professor Stephen G.A. Pitel
Faculty of Law, Western University
(519) 661-2111 ext 88433
President, University of Western Ontario Faculty Association
Professor Stephen G.A. Pitel
Faculty of Law, Western University
(519) 661-2111 ext 88433
President, University of Western Ontario Faculty Association