Melvin B. Goldberg received his J.D. and LL.M. degrees from the University of Chicago Law School, after getting a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota. Following a six-year period of legal aid work in Chicago, he returned to his native Minnesota to join the clinical faculty at the University of Minnesota Law School, where he was an associate professor from 1972 to 1977.
Goldberg joined the faculty at William Mitchell College of Law in 1977. An associate dean under President and Dean Geoffrey W. Peters, he became acting dean following Peter’s resignation in 1983. Not content to be a caretaker, he moved forward with planning for the new Warren E. Burger Library. When James F. Hogg was named dean in 1985, Goldberg returned to teaching until his death in 1998. He was an imaginative teacher and thoughtful faculty member, admired and respected by students and colleagues alike.