Jay P. Taggart
(1986 - 1949)
Class of 1908
Dean 1914-1916
Jay P. Taggart served as Dean of the Ohio Northern University College of Law from 1914-1916.
Taggart was born in 1886 near Summerville, Ohio. He received preparatory education in public schools in Monroe County. He later taught school in Monroe and Belmont counties. In 1908, he received an LL.B. from Ohio Northern University. At the age of 21 he took the state bar exam and made the highest grade in the state and one that had not been surpassed as of 1953.
He was admitted to practice in Ohio shortly after receiving his degree, and soon began practicing law in Ashland, Ohio as a Partner with Hon. Charles C. Chapman under the firm name of Chapman & Taggart.
In 1914, he became Dean and Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University College of Law until 1917.
Following his time as dean, Taggart began to practice alone in Akron from 1917-18. During this time he became associated with a private law firm in Cleveland, and three years later became a member in that firm until 1944.
Taggart was awarded an LL.D. by Ohio Northern University in 1941.
In 1944, Taggart was unanimously elected to the presidency of the Ohio State Bar Association.
He served as chairman of the Committee on Grievances and Committee on Professional Ethics of the Cleveland Bar Association, and for three years as a member of its Executive Committee. He was a member of the Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Conduct of the Ohio State Bar Association from 1936-41, and for the last two years of that period he served as chairman.
Taggart served as editor of Ohio Corporation Desk Book, associate editor of Page’s Ohio General Code Annotated, and the corporation chapter of Couse’s Ohio Forms and Precedents, 4 th edition.
He earned a 32 nd degree Mason, member of Lake Erie Consistory, and a member of Al Koran Shrine. He was a member of the Cleveland, Ohio State and American Bar Associations, Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Mid-Day and Rawfant Clubs and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
At the time of his death in 1949, Taggart was a member of the law firm of Bolton, Taggart, Boer, Mierke and McClelland in Cleveland. He was also secretary of the ONU board of trustees.
Mrs. Jay P. Taggart (Winifred), gave ONU $50,000 in 1953 as a permanent endowment for the College of Law’s library in memory of her late husband. The library was named Taggart Memorial Law Library in their honor. Plaques honor Dean and Mrs. Taggart as well as their portraits are displayed inside the Law Library.
