Minnesota Law Mourns the Passing of Former Faculty Member Roger C. Park

Professor Roger C. Park, a former University of Minnesota Law School professor and scholar has passed away. Park was a leading authority in evidence law whose scholarship played a central role in shaping both legal education and the doctrinal development of evidentiary rules in the United States. Following his 22 years at Minnesota Law, he taught at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings) from 1994 to 2025. 

Park produced some of his most foundational scholarship and helped establish the University of Minnesota Law School as a leading center for the study of evidence and trial process. Best known as a co-author of Evidence: Cases and Materials and a principal contributor to The New Wigmore: Evidence, Park helped define how generations of lawyers and judges understand the theory and practice of proof in litigation. His work bridged doctrinal analysis and empirical inquiry, advancing a more rigorous understanding of how evidence functions in real-world trials. In addition to his influential treatises and teaching texts, Park was an early innovator in legal pedagogy, developing computer-aided instructional materials that advanced access to interactive legal education.

Born in 1942, Park received his B.A. cum laude from Harvard University, spent two years in military service, including Vietnam, then received his J.D. magna cum laude in 1969 from Harvard Law School, where he was case editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, he served as law clerk for Judge Bailey Aldrich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He did trial and appellate work for three years with the small civil rights firm of Zalkind & Silverglate in Boston. He also taught as a political science adjunct professor at Wellesley College. In 1973, he began teaching at Minnesota Law, where he became the Fredrikson & Byron Professor of Law in 1990. He also taught as a visiting professor at Stanford Law School, University of Michigan, Boston University, and Boston College.