John Edward Cribbet 91 of Urbana died at 8:45 a.m. Saturday, May 23, 2009 at Meadowbrook Healthcare Center, Urbana.

Memorial services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, May 30, 2009 at the University of Illinois College of Law, Urbana. Inurnment will be held at the Wesley United Methodist Church, Urbana. There will be no public visitation. Renner-Wikoff Chapel and Crematory is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Cribbet was on February 21, 1918 in Findlay, the son of Howard H. and Ruth A. Wright Cribbet. He married Betty J. Smith on December 24, 1941 in Bloomington, she survives.

Also surviving are two daughters; Pamela (Tom - deceased) Steward of Bloomington and Carol (Michael) Cribbet Bell of Tucson, Arizona, five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

Mr. Cribbet served in the U.S. Army from 1941 - 1945. He served in the European Theater of operations from 1943 - 1945 and was involved in the D-Day landings and in the Battle of the Bulge. He had four battle stars and was awarded the Bronze Star and the French Crox de Guerre.

He was the senior aide de camp to Lt. General Troy H. Middleton, commanding General of the American VIII Corps, directly under the First and Third Armies and in this capacity he came to know a wide assortment of top U.S. Generals including Patton, Bradley and several others. In 1945 he returned to law school at the University of Illinois and received his Juris Doctor (Doctor of Law Degree) and passed the Illinois Bar in 1947. He practiced for a brief period with Costigan, Wollrab and Yoder in Bloomington and then joined the law faculty at Illinois.

By 1953, he was a full professor at the College; and in 1967 he became the seventh dean of the College of Law. In 1979, Cribbet left the College to become chancellor of the Urbana-Champaign campus, a position he held for five years. He returned to teaching in 1984 and was named the Richard W. and Marie L. Corman Professor of Law.

He has been a visiting professor at the universities of Michigan, Texas, Virginia, Alabama, the College of the Pacific, San Diego, Stetson University, he has lectured at the University of London and at the University of Stockholm. He was also a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford, England. Illinois Wesleyan University honored him in 1971 with an honorary Doctor of Law (LL.D) Degree.

Cribbet is the author of Cases and Materials on Judicial Remedies (1954), and coauthored Principles of the Law of Property (3rd ed. 1989) and Cases and Materials on Property (8th ed. 2002). He has also written numerous articles in leading law reviews on various legal subjects, with emphases in the property area. He was the founding editor of the University of Illinois Law Forum (later the Illinois Law Review) and was editor from 1947 - 1955.

A renowned legal educator, Cribbet served as president of the Association of American Law Schools in 1979 and on its executive committee for several years.

John Cribbet pursed the highest standards of legal scholarship, service to the public, and a passionate belief that our society is served well by introducing women and men to our legal system. He was an excellent classroom teacher and won many awards in that area.

In 1994 the College of Law honored Professor Cribbet by creating the John E. Cribbet Society as a permanent means of sustaining excellence in legal education at the College of Law. Membership in the Cribbet Society is the highest level of donor recognition for Annual Fund gifts. Member contributions support such areas as student scholarships and awards, scholarly events, and faculty research. Over two hundred people have already joined in honoring their former professor and friend.

He was a member of many organizations including the American Bar Association, the Association of American Law Schools, the American Judicature Society, the American Law Institute, etc. He was a member of the Wesley United Methodist Church of Urbana, the Urbana Rotary Club (and past president), the Philosophy Club, the University YMCA, Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, etc.

Memorial contributions may be made to the University of Illinois College of Law, Illinois Wesleyan University, American Diabetes Association or the Arthritis Foundation.

Condolences may be offered at www.renner-wikoffchapel.com.