A Southerner by birth and education, Harry J. Haynsworth came to William Mitchell College of Law with no ties to Minnesota. He received his bachelor’s and law degrees from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. In 1971, after seven years in private practice, he joined the law faculty at the University of South Carolina School of Law in Columbia, South Carolina.
He remained at the University of South Carolina until 1990, serving terms as associate dean and acting dean. During that time he also taught at the University of Leeds in England for a year and earned a master’s degree in religion from the Lutheran Southern Theological Seminary. He then went to Southern Illinois University School of Law in Carbondale, Ill. where he was dean for five years until he came to William Mitchell College of Law in 1995.
Through his leadership, William Mitchell strengthened its skills curriculum with the addition of several programs and the expansion of the Rosalie Wahl Legal Practice Center. The college’s clinic and student volunteer public service programs also grew under Haynsworth and the college began a loan repayment assistance scholarship for William Mitchell graduates who work in public service legal positions.
Haynsworth also led the college through an extensive campus enhancement project that created a new student center and a state-of-the-art classroom wing that was completed in 2004.