About Tim

Timothy Heinsz was the former dean of the School of Law and Earl F. Nelson Professor of Law and Director of the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution. Professor Heinsz was highly regarded as one of the University's outstanding academic leaders and a nationally respected legal scholar.

Tim Heinsz is missed by all who knew him.  Dean Bailey related his memories of Tim Heinsz in the Fall 2004 issue of the Trascript of the MU School of Law.

“Tim embodied love and possessed a gentle, loving and caring spirit. He loved life and lived it fully and richly.  He loved his work and he worked tirelessly on every project he ever undertook. Despite his tremendous capacity for work, he did not seek the spotlight. Tim personified a quiet, calm, effective leadership which endeared him to everyone.  He loved the University of Missouri and his many functions with the University.  But most of all, he loved his family, playing the role of the doting family patriarch for them.  He loved his daughters, Jennifer and Megan, with a depth of love rarely seen. He adored his granddaughter, Camille.  And he had a storybook love affair with his childhood sweetheart and wife of 36 years, Susan.

Tim exemplified kindness and thoughtfulness. He always had a smile on his face and always had time for every person he met or who sought him out for guidance and counsel. Tim’s acts of kindness were daily, but a few memorable ones include his constant bringing of flowers from Susan’s garden to the law school staff or his yearly sending of flowers to his mother on his own birthday.  This kindness brightened our lives and made each of us better. People have asked me what made Tim so kind, and I believe it was because of the love and support of his family and his deep, abiding and profound faith in God.

But as exceptionally gifted, wise and talented as Tim was, beneath his professional exterior and numerous achievements and accomplishments laid the impish spirit of Bart Simpson and Dennis the Menace.  Tim loved to play practical jokes with his family and friends. Just one such act was that he would switch the cereal from one box to another so that his girls ended up with a breakfast suprise.

Tim was my best friend and I choose to remember him as the friend who always had a smile on his face, an impish act to impart, a kind gesture to give, and a heartfelt love beyond measure for those he encountered.”

Tim Heinsz was also an accomplished scholar with a distinguished professional career. Professor Heinsz received his bachelor's degree from St. Louis University and his juris doctor from Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of the Cornell Law Review. He came to MU as a visiting professor in 1979, joined the faculty in 1981 and served as dean of the Law School from 1988-2001. Before entering academics, he practiced with the firm of Lewis, Rice and Fingersh in St. Louis. Professor Heinsz was a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators and published widely in the field of labor and employment law. He had been a visiting scholar at the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and a visiting professor at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He served on the National Executive Board for the International Society for Labor Law and Social Security and was a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He was a member of the American Law Institute and a recipient of the President's Award and Spurgeon Smithson Award from The Missouri Bar. He also served as Missouri commissioner with the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.