Obituary: Charles J. Goetz

University of Virginia School of Law Professor Emeritus Charles J. Goetz died Oct. 16. He was 85.

Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Goetz graduated from Brooklyn’s Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School. He attended Providence College where he met his wife, Judy, on a blind date. They were married for 56 years, until her death in 2018.

Mr. Goetz went to graduate school at the University of Virginia, graduating with a Ph.D. in economics in 1964. He studied at the University of Pavia in Italy for the next academic year with a postdoctoral NATO grant before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois.

In 1967, Mr. Goetz relocated to Virginia, taking a position at Virginia Tech. He became a full professor at Virginia Tech and helped found the university’s Center of the Study of Public Choice in 1969.

Mr. Goetz became a visiting professor at the University of Virginia School of Law in 1975. He was offered a position as the school’s first non-attorney full-time faculty member teaching law and economics and first year contracts.

In 1984, Mr. Goetz wrote the first casebook on law and economics. He later co-authored a casebook on antitrust law with Fred McChesney, his former student and then-law professor at Northwestern University.

Mr. Goetz also taught Modern Methods of Proof, drawing on his experiences as a consultant to litigators and expert witnesses. He retired from the University of Virginia in 2006.

Mr. Goetz is survived by his partner, Nancy; his sons, Chuck, Dan and Eric; his grandson, Hal; his sister-in-law, Ann; his nephews, Glenn and John; and his niece, Beth.