Yearbook photo of a young Paul E. Casseb, then graduating undergraduate and law school studies
Yearbookbook photo of Paul E. Casseb, class of 1941, Diamondback, yearbook | Courtesy of the Portal to Texas History

PAUL ERNEST CASSEB was born on May 14, 1919, in San Antonio, Texas to Solomon Nagem Casseb and Annie Marie Barberio Casseb. During grade school, he attended St. Mary’s Parochial School and Thomas Jefferson High School.

Casseb arrived at St. Mary’s University in the mid-1930s, and he became an active member of the International Relations Club and a regular contributor to the St. Mary’s student newspaper, The Rattler, in his six years of study at St. Mary’s University and St. Mary’s Law School. As a member of the International Relations Club, Casseb participated in debates concerning important international issues of his day. In May 1936, for example, he participated in a debate over Germany’s reoccupation of the Rhineland, where he and a teammate argued in favor of Germany’s right to reoccupation of the industrial region. As a contributor to The Rattler newspaper, Casseb’s love for international affairs and domestic law shined through in his articles and columns. As an undergraduate student, he frequently reported and commented on both international and national events in the turbulent 1930s such as the coronation of King George VI of the United Kingdom and the United States Supreme Court’s 1937 decision regarding the National Labor Regulations Act.

Then in the late 1930s and early 1940s, as a law student attending classes at St. Mary’s School of Law’s downtown campus, Casseb covered events there for The Rattler. Also, as a law student, Casseb was a founder and charter member of the law school’s Barrister Club, a precursor to the modern Law Students Senate. Casseb graduated from St. Mary’s in 1941 with a B.A. degree and a Doctor of Jurisprudence. His academic excellence earned him a place on the list of Who’s Who Among Students and Colleges in American Colleges and Universities for the 1940-1941 academic year. Before beginning his professional life, however, Casseb joined the U.S. armed forces where he served in the 36th Infantry Division during the Second World War. His tour of duty took him to Africa, Italy, France, and Germany. 

When his tour of duty concluded, Casseb returned to St. Mary’s Law School as an adjunct professor; a position he held from 1946-1960. Casseb remained close to St. Mary’s Law School throughout his life. He established a fund to help the law school attract an outstanding visiting professor to teach at the institution each year, and he was awarded the Outstanding Law Alumnus award in 1976. In 1947, Casseb began his own private practice in San Antonio, but his career also took him to Mexico as well. His specialties were international law, banking, corporation, tax, and land law. Casseb continued to practice law until just weeks before his death on August 17, 2007, at the age of 88. 

By Christopher Hohman, St. Mary’s University Law Fellows in Public History (2022)

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