Kurt F. Pantzer

(Aug. 21, 1892-July 8, 1979). Born in Indianapolis, Kurt Pantzer attended Wabash College and received both his A.B. and his law degree from Harvard. He practiced for two years in New York City and, after returning to Indiana in 1922, associated with two Indianapolis law firms before becoming a partner in 1940 at Barnes, Hickman, Pantzer, and Boyd, where he remained until his death.

Nationally known for his legal expertise, Pantzer served on the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, was chair of the Indiana Commission on a Uniform Commercial Code and the Indiana Commission on Uniform State Laws (including a special committee of the latter on Uniform Acts to Prevent Organized Crime), and cochair of the Joint Committee of the American Bar Association. He also chaired the Committee of Twenty-One, which introduced and lobbied the Indiana General Assembly in 1949 to adopt the Uniform Partnership Act, Uniform Limited Partnership Act, Uniform Divorce Act, and amendments to the Business Corporation Act. He served on the boards of many corporations as well as several educational, civic, and cultural institutions.

Pantzer owned the world’s largest collection of J. M. W. Turner watercolors in private hands, a collection displayed at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. He was active in the formation of the Meridian Street Preservation Commission to preserve the character of the north Meridian Street corridor between 40^th Street and Westfield Boulevard. That commission successfully opposed the proposed widening of Meridian Street in the early 1970s.

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