Professor Covington joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1961, immediately after his graduation from Vanderbilt Law School. At that time, Dean John Wade – whose leadership during the 1960s and early 1970s propelled Vanderbilt Law School to national status – customarily hired a top graduate to teach and serve as a research fellow the following year. Professor Covington agreed to put his plans to join the JAG Corps on hold for a year to accept the honor. “My immediate predecessor in that position was Gil Merritt,” Professor Covington recalls.
Professor Covington, who was offered a permanent appointment on the Vanderbilt faculty soon thereafter, never joined the JAG Corps. Today, he looks back on a lengthy and rewarding career as a Vanderbilt law professor. Among the honors he has accrued at Vanderbilt is the law school’s Covington Room, named in his honor.
Over the course of his career as a scholar of labor law, Professor Covington acknowledges that the discipline has evolved so rapidly that simply keeping track of changes and trends has been a challenge shared by legal scholars and practitioners alike. “The rapid pace of change presents a tremendous challenge to labor law practitioners,” he says. “With the exception of the National Labor Relations Act, very little of what I taught during my last year on the Vanderbilt law faculty was on the books when I graduated.”
An accomplished baritone, Professor Covington also founded Headnotes, an a cappella choir of students and faculty that has performed at law school functions for more than a decade.
“Bob Covington has been an important part of the life of the law school for almost half a century, and we will miss him,” Dean Edward L. Rubin said. “We wish him a retirement as long, happy and productive as his tenure at Vanderbilt Law School.”