Press enter after choosing selection

Law School Aide, Mrs. Roberts, Dies

Law School Aide, Mrs. Roberts, Dies image
Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
June
Year
1966
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
Obituary
OCR Text

Law School Aide, Mrs. Roberts, Dies
Memorial services for Mrs. Lilly C. Roberts, 63, of 11 Ridgeway, attorney, author, and librarian at the University's Law School, who died Monday at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Ann Arbor Unitarian Church.
The Rev. Erwin A. Gaede will officiate, assisted by G. Peter Fleck of White Plains, N.Y., her brother-in-law.
Mrs. Roberts was born on April 19, 1903, in Hamburg, Germany, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Willy Elkan. She and Gerald R. Roberts were married on Jan. 24, 1939. He survives.
Mrs. Roberts studied law at Freiburg University and Hamburg University in Germany, and passed the government law examinations with "distinction."
She served in the commercial and criminal departments of the lower and higher courts of Hamburg from 1928-31, and as assistant to the prosecutor. She then was appointed judge and became a member of the Hamburg Court of Appeals.
From 1936-39, she practiced law in Berlin and did legal work for firms in Stockholm, The Hague, and London.
Mrs. Roberts was then appointed research assistant in the U-M Law Library on March 4, 1940, and in July of that year received an appointment as research assistant in international law. She was appointed bibliographer in 1945 and held that post until her death.
Prof. Beverly J. Pooley, director of the U-M Law Library, said today, "Mrs. Roberts was an outstanding bibliographer and librarian. By her unexcelled scholarship and knowledge of foreign legal systems, she was recognized by members of the University of Michigan Law School faculty, the students whom she served, and her fellow librarian throughout the United States as having made unique contributions towards the study of foreign, international and comparative law at Michigan."
Mrs. Roberts, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen on Jan. 30, 1945, is the author of numerous articles and publications in the field of law. She is listed in "Who's Who of American Women" and "Who's Who in the Midwest."
She helped found the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, was a member of the International Law Library Association, the American Association of Law Librarians, Kappa Beta Pi legal sorority, the U-M Women's Research Club, the Ann Arbor Library Club, and was on the board of the Unitarian Church here.
Survivors, in addition to her husband, include a son, William, a student at the University of California at Berkeley; a daughter, Elsa, a student at Oberlin College; a brother, Karl Melchior of New York City; and three sisters, Mrs. Olga Meyer of White Plains, N.Y., Mrs. Ruth Fleck of New Jersey, and Mrs. Emmy Braun of Paris, France.