Dr.jur. Reginald Parker Bethauer

https://gedenkbuch.univie.ac.at/index.php?&L=2&id=435&person_single...

Reginald PARKER (nee BETTAUER) (born on August 23rd, 1904 in Phoenicia, Ulster County, New York, USA), was the son of the author and newspaper-editor Hugo Bettauer (1872-1925), who was murdered in Vienna in 1925 (antisemitic motive). Reginald Bettauer had graduated at the Law School at the University of Vienna on July 1st, 1927 with the academic degree 'Dr. iur.'. Later on he changed his name to Parker in 1933. In times of Nazism he was persecuted but was able to emigrate in 1938 to the USA together with his wife Hedwig Parker (née Kobler, 1907-1997) and their daughter Evelyn Parker (b. January 30th, 1937).

He was deprived of his academic degree on September 11th, 1943 with the racist argument, that he as a Jew was not considered dignified an academic degree of a German university ('eines akademischen Grades einer deutschen Hochschule unwürdig'). It took 6 years since the deprivation until the regranting of the doctorate took finally place on May 7th, 1949.

In the USA Reginald PARKER lectured at the Department of Law at Willamette University in Salem/Oregon and was a lawyer at the Supreme Court and at the court of Illinois, Massachusetts and in the District of Columbia. He was the author of "Das öffentliche Recht der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika“ and "Das Privatrecht der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika" (Vienna, 1960). In 1951 he asked for a Fulbright-Grant for Vinna, which was rejected from Prof. Alfred Verdroß-Droßberg. (König 2009, 176)

Lit.: POSCH 2009, 455; KÖNIG 2009, 175; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2010, 11, 18, 263; Archive of the University of Vienna, graduation register ("Promotionsprotokoll") IUR 1924-1939, ONr 642, Rectorate GZ 151 ex 1942/43, GZ 561 ex 1944/45, GZ 515 ex 1948/49; information from Christine Karner, Vienna 2009, www.geni.com.