Norman Singer, the Charles O. Stokes Professor Emeritus of Law and Anthropology, passed away Monday at Druid City Hospital. His family was with him, as was his friend and former student Anil Mujumdar.
Singer took his bachelor’s degree from the Wharton School (Penn) and his J.D. (summa) from Boston University Law School. After law school, he did a four-year stint in the Peace Corps. On returning to the States he took an S.J.D. from Harvard; his dissertation was on traditional legal systems in Ethiopia. He was a committed internationalist, having taught or worked in Ethiopia, Albania, Cambodia, Croatia, Egypt, Fiji, Iraq, Jamaica, Morocco, Rwanda, Sudan, Trinidad, Yugoslavia, and Zanzibar.
Among his many projects, he lent his legal expertise to restructuring land tenures in countries with poorly functioning (or non-existent) private land tenures. He was a prolific scholar, having authored 26 books/monographs, seven book chapters, 21 journal articles, 26 book reviews, and five published reports. Perhaps his best-known scholarly work was the treatise, Sutherland on Statutory Construction, which he co-authored with his eldest son, Shambie Singer. He is survived by a loving and supportive family, including his wife, Anna Jacobs Singer; sons, Shambie, Jeremy (Nicole) and Micah (Ali); stepdaughters, Joanna Jacobs and Stephanie Jacobs; and three grandchildren.
There will be a graveside service at Evergreen Cemetery on Wednesday, November 2, at 2:00 p.m.
For more, read The Tuscaloosa News obituary.
