Los Angeles County
Biographies
ARTHUR ELBERT BRIGGS
Arthur Elbert Briggs attorney and president of Metropolitan University of Los Angeles, was born in Parsons, Kansas, April 26, 1881. The son of Benjamin Franklin and Alice (Burkett) Briggs.
Student at Kansas State University in 1898 and graduate student, 1912-13; student at Parsons Business College in 1899. Received his Ph.B. from Kansas City University in 1905 and LL.B. degree in 1906 (student of theology, 1913-1915); special student at Columbia University, 1916-17. Received the M.A. degree from University of Southern California in 1928, Ph.D. in 1932, research fellow in economics, 1934-36.
Mr. Briggs was a country school teacher, 1898-99; stenographer, 1899-1906. Admitted to the Missouri and Oklahoma bars in 1906 and was in practice in Oklahoma from 1906 to 1909; attorney for Kansas City Life Insurance Company, 1909-19, for Eugene Arnett, Inc., 1919-23, and for Elliot-Horne Company and Pacific Company, 1924-28; in general law practice since 1941. He was dean of Law School, University of the West, Los Angeles, 1924-25; head of Law Department in public schools of Los Angeles, 1925-29; vice president and dean of Metropolitan University, Los Angeles, 1930-44, and president since 1945.
He was Los Angeles City Councilman, 1939-41; member of Board of Directors of Municipal League of Los Angeles since 1945; attorney for and member of Board of Directors of Security Homes Estate; member of Board of Trustees of Pacific International University since 1944; member of Executive Committee of National Lawyers Guild (Los Angeles) since 1943.
Member of American Bar Association; Pacific Coast Sociological Association; Pacific Coast Economics Association; the fraternity of Leaders of the American Ethical Union; Los Angeles Ethical Culture Society (leader); Alpha Kappa Delta, Psi Chi, and Sigma Delta Kappa Fraternities; Unitarian Church; and the following clubs: Lawyers of Los Angeles (charter member), Severance (first vice president), and Democratic Luncheon.
Mr. Briggs is the author of “Walt Whitman: Thinker and Artist,” published by The Philosophical Library, Inc., of New York; “Comparative Legal and Sociological Concepts of Personality,” published by the The Southern California University Press; and articles on political and educational civic matters to newspapers and magazines.
On June 27, 1909, Mr. Briggs married Mabel Wilson; one daughter, Mary Louise (Mrs. White). His second marriage was to Leah Sylvia Travaglio on December 25, 1946.
Address: 2424 Hidalgo Street, Los Angeles, California.
Transcribed
11-18-14 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
Source: Eminent Californians 1953, by Lee E.
Johnson & C. W. Taylor. Pages 517-518, C. W. Taylor Publ., Palo Alto, California, 1953.
© 2014 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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