Los Angeles County
Biographies
ROLLIN LEE McNITT
Any piece of biographical writing should be both an impression and an interpretation, quite as much as a summary of facts. Facts, to be sure, are of use as a wholesome corrective of prejudice or whimsey; but in the condensed narrative of a life there is danger that they may tyranize.(sic) In studying a clean cut sane distinct character like that of Rollin Lee McNitt, attorney of the bar, interpretation follows fact in a straight line of deviation. There is small need of indirection or puzzling His character is the positive expression of a strong and loyal nature and he has given distinguished service in behalf of the city and state which have represented his home for many years and in which he has pressed forward to the mark of high and worthy accomplishment. As has been well said by one especially familiar with his career, “He is one of the best known men in California and is not a stranger to the world when he steps outside the borders of his own state, as he has participated in many activities that have brought him in contact with the best minds of the nation. He has done much to further the civic and material up-building of Los Angeles and such has been his life and labors as one of the world’s great army of constructive workers that there is all of consistency in according him representation in this publication.”
Rollin L. McNitt was born at Byron Center, Michigan, in 1887 and is a son of Morrison Seward McNitt and Flora Bacon McNitt.
He received his early education in the public schools of his native state. After graduation he entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan, graduating with his LL.B. in 1912, and at once was admitted to the Michigan bar. Mr. McNitt decided, however, that the West offered better opportunities and consequently came to Los Angeles that same year, where he was admitted to practice his profession. Mr. McNitt has been engaged in the active practice of law in the city of Los Angeles for nearly a quarter of a century and his reputation in his chosen profession is far from being of circumscribed order. He has appeared in connection with some important litigations in the state and federal courts of California. His knowledge of the science of jurisprudence is broad and exact, as he has brought to his profession marked natural receptivity and a well disciplined mind, besides which his character has been such as to lend dignity and honor to his important and exacting calling, in which he has gained so much of success and distinction.
Mr. McNitt has been connected with the Southwestern University for the past eighteen years, in the Law Department, having been dean of that department for the past fifteen years. Active in civic affairs, he served four years on the City Planning Commission, acting for a time as president. He is past president of City Planners of Los Angeles. In 1922 he was organizer of and first chairman of the Association of California law Schools. During the World war he was a member of the Legal Advisory Board of the Eagle Rock District, and took an active part in all of the drives for money to carry on the war. In politics, Mr. McNitt is very active in the Democratic party and a personal friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom he visited at Warm Springs, Georgia, in 1934. He is a member of the Los Angeles Bar Association, the State Bar of California and the American Bar Association. He is also a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and is a Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner. He has membership in the University of Michigan Union and Los Angeles Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is the author of several technical articles, including the Law of Zoning, one of the important questions confronting the citizens of Los Angeles and vicinity. Mr. McNitt was united in marriage with Miss Marjorie E. Hilton at Windsor, Canada, on August 20, 1908. One child was born to them, Rollin Lee, Jr.
Transcribed 2-5-13
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
611-612, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2013 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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BIOGRAPHIES