Edward Hirsch Levi served as U.S. attorney general from 1975 to 1976 under President Gerald R. Ford. Levi, who was a preeminent law professor, was the rare attorney general who did not have close political ties to the president. Ford chose him to help restore the credibility of the office, as two of his recent predecessors in the Nixon administration were charged with crimes. Though Levi did little substantively during his short tenure, he is credited with restoring public confidence in the Department of Justice.

Levi was closely tied to Chicago, Illinois, He was born there on June 26, 1911 and attended public schools. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Chicago in the 1930s before finally leaving for New Haven, Connecticut to enter the doctoral program at Yale University.

After earning his doctorate in 1938, Levi returned to Chicago to become a professor of law at the...