The Honorable Solomon Oliver Jr. graduated from Wooster with honors in 1969, majoring in philosophy and political science. A native of Bessemer, Alabama, Judge Oliver transferred to Wooster from Alabama’s Miles College which had an exchange program with Wooster during the 1960s.

As a student, Oliver was a member of the Afro-American Student Organization and was president of the Wooster-Miles Students Exchange Committee. He also served on the Education Affairs Committee and the Black Education Committee.

Among the Wooster memories that Oliver recalls are participating with fellow students in the Cleveland mayoral campaign for Carl Stokes, who became the first black mayor of a major U.S. city; the teach-in for Vietnam; and taking a swimming class from Bob Bruce at 7:40 a.m. in the old Severance pool.

Following his graduation from Wooster, Oliver received the J.D. degree from New York University and a master’s degree in political science from Case Western Reserve University.

From 1972 to 1975, Oliver returned to his alma mater as a member of the faculty, teaching in the political science department. From 1975 to 1976, he was senior law clerk to the late Judge William H. Hastie of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Hastie was the first African-American to serve as a federal appellate judge.

From 1976 to 1982, Judge Oliver served with the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Cleveland. From July 1978 to March 1982, he was Chief of the Civil Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and then became Chief of Appellate Litigation in that office in March 1982.

Oliver joined the faculty of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law of Cleveland State University in the fall of 1982 and served at that institution until 1994. While at Cleveland-Marshall, Oliver held visiting positions at Comenius University in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, and at Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and was a National Endowment for Humanities fellow at Stanford University. From May 1991 to May 1994, he was associate dean of faculty and administration at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

On May 9, 1994, President Clinton appointed Oliver to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. He was sworn in as the 41st judge in the history of that court on May 13, 1994, and thereby became the third Wooster graduate seated on that court. Sam H. Bell ’47 and David Dowd ’51 were also on the 12-member Northern District court when Oliver joined them.

At his investiture ceremony, Judge Nathaniel R. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said of Oliver, who grew up in the segregated south, his life "represents the reality and the truth that with faith and determination and trust, change can come about."

Oliver has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from New York University Black, Latino, Asian Pacific American Law Alumni Association. He has taught and written law review articles in the areas of federal civil jurisdiction and practice and has lectured on a wide range of topics at colleges and universities, at continuing legal education seminars, and at judicial conferences. He has authored a chapter in a six-volume treatise entitled Business & Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts. He was the keynote speaker at a conference of East African judges in Arusha, Tanzania, in 1995.

`Since graduating from Wooster, Oliver has been tireless in his volunteer support of the College. He has served as an Alumni Trustee and as President of the Alumni Association. Oliver also led the effort to establish the Black Alumni Council’s Scholarship Fund, which has endowed a scholarship in the name of Professor Theodore Williams (chemistry). He has assisted the College in its admissions efforts and has spoken frequently, both formally and informally, with Wooster students, including members of the pre-law program.

Oliver and his wife, Louisa Stroop Oliver of the Class of 1968, are the parents of two sons, Solomon Michael and Jonathan Douglass.