Bertel M. Sparks
Professor of Law, 1967-1988

Bertel Sparks specialized in equity, estate planning, and property.  He served on the Drafting Committee for the Review of Laws Relating to the Administration of Estates of the North Carolina General Statutes Commission from 1967 until his retirement.  Sparks was also a member of the Drafting Committee for the Multi-State Bar Exam.  He acted as a consultant to the Subcommittee on the Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. Senate.

Sparks completed a B.S. at Eastern Kentucky University in 1938.  During World War II he served as a special agent in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps.  In 1948 Sparks earned an LL.B. at the University of Kentucky where he was editor-in-chief of the Kentucky Law Journal.  He completed an LL.M. in 1949 and an S.J.D. in 1955 at the University of Michigan.  Sparks joined the law faculty at NYU in 1949, a position he kept until coming to Duke Law in 1967.  He retired in 1988 and died in 1994.

Sources:

Duke University, School of Law, Bulletin of Duke University School of Law [serial]

Steve Flairty, Everyday Heroes: Wilmore Native Martha Evans Sparks Provides a Voice for Caregivers [perma.cc/2D96-XNT4], KyForward (July 15, 2014) (last viewed Oct. 21, 2015)

Bertel M. Sparks
Historic Faculty