USD Law Professor Thomas E Geu receives Jackson Award for Excellence in Teaching
“Tom Geu is a dedicated classroom teacher, innovative legal scholar, and national leader in law reform,” said Dean Barry Vickrey. “He works as hard as any other professor I have known anywhere in any discipline to improve constantly the instruction he provides students. The USD Law School is truly fortunate to have him as a member of our faculty and he is a deserving recipient of the Jackson Award.”
This is the second time Geu has been selected to receive the Jackson Award (1997). Geu will receive a plaque and a cash award and his name will also be inscribed on a separate plaque that is retained permanently in the School of Law.
Geu’s scholarship and service to the profession is extensive. He has served in the important role of national reporter for the Uniform Limited Cooperative Act and as South Dakota Commissioner for the Uniform Laws Commission. Geu is also an elected member of the American Law Institute and has been active in the State Bar of South Dakota. His areas of teaching at USD School of Law include organizational, transactional, and capital formation courses, and he also writes broadly on business organization law. He has a research interest in determining whether law is a complex adaptive system (as is an ecosystem). Geu’s mother and father farm near Sidney, Neb., and his mother is a former teacher. His wife, Carol, also teaches at USD.
The Jackson Award was established in 1981 through a gift by Horace and Dorothy Jackson of Rapid City, South Dakota, in honor of members of the Jackson family. Professor Geu was selected by a committee of Dean Vickrey, Elizabeth Overmoe, president of the Student Bar Association, and last year’s recipient, Professor Jo Pasqualucci.
Selection is based on criteria demonstrating excellence in the teaching of law, including effectiveness in the classroom; efforts to improve legal education in ways that serve the needs of the profession and of South Dakota; research and writing; contributions to the profession through public service; and contributions to the academic environment of the Law School.
A photo of Tom is available for download at http://www.usd.edu/urelations/images/Tom_Geu.jpg.