A legal scholar and historian known for his quick wit and pursuit of the truth, Mark R. Killenbeck, Wylie H. Davis Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, left a lasting influence on generations of U of A students at the School of Law and the Honors College. He died on March 30, 2025, following a lengthy illness.

"Our law school community is deeply saddened by Mark's death," said Cynthia Nance, dean of the School of Law. "He was an esteemed faculty member who made tremendous contributions to the legal academy and the profession during his illustrious career."

The School of Law will host a Celebration of Life at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 15, in the E.J. Ball Courtroom. Please share your memories and photos of Professor Killenbeck at uthernan@uark.edu to include in the celebration. The event will also be livestreamed. Click here to watch the livestream.

Killenbeck was born on Sept. 29, 1948, in Rochester, New York. He earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Boston College; however, a job at the University of Kansas Medical Center analyzing federal statutes, regulations and Supreme Court cases changed the course of his career. He decided to pursue a dual Ph.D and Juris Doctor from the University of Nebraska.

Killenbeck worked in central administration at the University of Nebraska System for 13 years, ultimately serving as chief of staff for the system president, before accepting a teaching position at the U of A in 1988.

For three decades in Arkansas, he taught constitutional law, First Amendment law and American constitutional history, along with a variety of undergraduate seminars and forums in the Honors College, where he also mentored pre-law students. The Honors College named Killenbeck the recipient of the Distinguished Research and Teaching Faculty Award in 2022.

"I asked Professor Killenbeck to teach one of our first Honors College Signature Seminars (fall 2018): 'Speech in the Twenty-First Century: Filth, Fear or Freedom?', and what a treat it was for students to have a law professor with an amazing research record share a seminar table space with them, applying the rigor of legal studies to a subject of consistent and vital interest: free speech," said Lynda Coon, dean of the Honors College. "Killenbeck followed this highly successful seminar up with an Honors College Retro Reading on the Supreme Court (fall 2021). Killenbeck's zeal for teaching and mentoring our honors students was exceptional. I shall miss Mark greatly, his wit, his mischievous demeanor and his huge brain."

He was known for his direct teaching style aimed at inspiring his classes to think through the "wider context" of law — to formulate their own opinions.

"I want my students to think and read carefully," Killenbeck shared in a previous Arkansas News article. "I tell my students, don't you ever say a thing about a Supreme Court case unless you've actually read it."

Beyond the classroom, he enriched the profession with his voice and scholarship. He was invited to speak at the United States Supreme Court three times. First, in May 2012, he delivered a Leon Silverman Lecture, "A Prudent Regard to Our Own Good? The Commerce Clause, in Nation and States." Then in October 2014, he provided the expert commentary and introduction for a Frank C. Jones Reenactment of the oral argument in McCulloch v. Maryland. In October 2019, he returned to the U.S. Supreme Court to deliver a second Leon Silverman Lecture on notable concurring opinions that effectively served as dissents.

His assessment of the Supreme Court's 2003 affirmative action decisions, "Affirmative Action and Diversity: The Beginning of the End? Or the End of the Beginning?," was published by the Educational Testing Service, which printed and distributed over 10,000 copies of it in conjunction with its Policy Information Perspective series. His work has also appeared in The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions, the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States, Social Consciousness in Legal Decision Making: Psychological Perspectives and many of the top legal journals in the nation. He was a contributing editor of the journal Historically Speaking and a consulting editor for The Journal of Supreme Court History.

While serving on the faculty, Killenbeck was the first professor in the history of the School of Law elected to membership in the American Law Institute and later became a life member of the prestigious organization.

Killenbeck is survived by his wife, Ann Killenbeck, U of A professor of law, and their daughter, Jessica.

---

 About the University of Arkansas School of Law: The law school offers a competitive J.D. and is home to the nation's first LL.M. program in agriculture and food law. Led by nationally recognized faculty, the school offers students pro bono work, live client clinics, public service fellowships, competitions, and much more. Students also benefit from our location in one of the fastest growing, most livable, and economically vibrant regions in the U.S., and from our corporate externship partnerships with Fortune 500 companies. Our alumni have gone on to become judges, senators, and governors, and we serve communities throughout our state and nation through programs such as the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative. Follow us at @uarklaw.

About the Honors College: The University of Arkansas Honors College was established in 2002 and brings together high-achieving undergraduate students and the university's top professors to share transformative learning experiences. Each year the Honors College awards up to 90 freshman fellowships that provide $80,000 over four years, and more than $1 million in undergraduate research and study abroad grants. The Honors College is nationally recognized for the high caliber of students it admits and graduates. Honors students enjoy small, in-depth classes, and programs are offered in all disciplines, tailored to students' academic interests, with interdisciplinary collaborations encouraged. All Honors College graduates have engaged in mentored research.