{"id":240085,"date":"2026-01-16T09:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=240085"},"modified":"2026-01-16T13:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:17:14","slug":"in-memoriam-uconn-law-professor-emeritus-stephen-utz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/01\/in-memoriam-uconn-law-professor-emeritus-stephen-utz\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: UConn Law Professor Emeritus Stephen Utz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Utz, Roger Sherman Professor of Law Emeritus at the UConn School of Law and a beloved teacher and scholar, passed away peacefully on December 9 after a long illness.\u00a0\u00a0His\u00a0nearly 40-year\u00a0career at the law school left an enduring mark on generations of students and faculty, shaping the school\u2019s\u00a0success and\u00a0excellence in tax law\u00a0and\u00a0legal philosophy.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cProfessor Utz\u00a0was such a kind, supportive, and thoughtful colleague and friend,\u201d says\u00a0Dean Eboni S. Nelson. \u201cHe was an exceptional\u00a0teacher and scholar, and we will be forever grateful for his many contributions to the\u00a0excellence of the\u00a0law school and beyond. He will be sorely missed by so many.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
Professor Stephen Utz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UConn Law Professor\u00a0Willajeanne\u00a0McLean,\u00a0Professor Utz\u2019s\u00a0longtime friend and colleague, remembered him as \u201cnot just a tax scholar but also a Greek and Latin scholar\u201d whose \u201ccatholic interests\u201d ranged from cooking and classical music to poetry. \u201cHis work\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0help but be informed by his wide<\/span>\u2011<\/span>ranging knowledge.\u00a0He was intellectually curious and deeply empathetic.\u00a0Professor Utz was one of the first people at the law school to befriend me, and that friendship\u00a0endured for\u00a034 years. I will miss him.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,\u00a0Professor Utz\u00a0demonstrated\u00a0academic\u00a0excellence\u00a0early in life. He graduated from Louisiana State University\u00a0at\u00a0just\u00a019, earning\u00a0highest\u00a0honors in philosophy.\u00a0 As LSU\u2019s first Marshall Scholar, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in the Philosophy of Science from King\u2019s College, University of Cambridge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He taught philosophy at LSU before turning to law, enrolling at the University of Texas School of Law, where he graduated with high honors, served on the Texas Law Review, and was\u00a0elected\u00a0to the Order of the Coif, an\u00a0honor society for law school graduates.\u00a0Following law school,\u00a0he\u00a0clerked for Judge Joseph T. Sneed on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and practiced at the tax law firm Caplin & Drysdale in Washington,\u00a0D.C.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Utz\u00a0joined the UConn School of Law faculty in 1983, beginning a distinguished academic career defined by\u00a0outstanding\u00a0teaching and prolific scholarship.\u00a0He taught a\u00a0range of courses over his four decades at UConn Law, including Federal Income Taxation, Tax Policy, International Tax, and Trusts and Estates.\u00a0He retired in 2023.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A renowned expert in federal tax law, tax policy, and jurisprudence,\u00a0Professor Utz\u00a0authored numerous articles, book chapters, and several widely\u00a0adopted\u00a0books, including\u00a0\u201cTax Policy: A Survey and Introduction to the Principal Debates,\u201d\u00a0\u201cFederal Income Taxation of Partners\u00a0and Partnerships,\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cInside Tax Law: What Matters and Why.\u201d\u00a0His casebook,\u00a0\u201cFederal Tax Law: Practice, Problems, and Perspective,\u201d\u00a0was published in 2013.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u00a0also brought his\u00a0expertise\u00a0to institutions around the world, holding visiting professorships at New York University School of Law, the Free University of Berlin,\u00a0as well as at the Law Faculty of Aix<\/span>\u2011<\/span>Marseille and Trinity College in Hartford.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Utz\u00a0is survived by his three daughters, Emma (Utz) Brewer,\u00a0Clara Utz, and\u00a0Annabel Utz,\u00a0and by his partner, Ellen Keane.\u00a0The family will hold a memorial service at a later date.\u00a0They ask that in lieu of flowers,\u00a0<\/span>memorial gifts be made to the Elizabeth Park Conservancy,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in honor of the park and gardens that were so special to him.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Utz leaves a legacy as a beloved teacher and distinguished scholar of tax law and legal philosophy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":240095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1857],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2651],"class_list":["post-240085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 09:36:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240085"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240114,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240085\/revisions\/240114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/240095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240085"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=240085"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=240085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}