Historical Faculty

Kenneth Rush completed his A.B. degree at the University of Tennessee in 1930 and his LL.B. at Yale in 1932.  He joined the New York firm of Chadbourne, Stanchfield, & Levy as an associate.  In 1936 Rush briefly became a member of the legal staff at Union Carbide before joining the Duke Law faculty later the same year.  While at Duke he started a lifelong friendship with third year law student Richard Nixon.  

In 1937 Rush accepted an offer to return to Union Carbide.  He stayed with the company for thirty years.  In 1969 President Nixon appointed Rush to become the ambassador to West Germany.  In this role Rush was a major negotiator in talks to ease tensions over West Berlin and successfully improved relations between East Germany, the Soviet Union, and the West.  In 1974 President Gerald Ford appointed Rush ambassador to France.  Rush died in 1994.

Sources:

David Binder, Kenneth Rush, U.S. Diplomat, Is Dead at 84 [perma.cc/REL3-7RTM], The New York Times (December 13, 1994) (last viewed July 14, 2015)

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

Rush, Kenneth, AALS Directory of Teachers in Member Schools, 132 (1936-1937)