Francis William Coker, Jr. (1917-62) was a graduate of Yale College (1939) and the Law School (1946). He left a partnership at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to join the faculty and, at the time of his untimely death, was also a consultant to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In that position, he developed the regulatory structure for issuers of variable annuity contracts under the Investment Company Act of 1940. He was also in charge of an inquiry reexamining the Investment Company Act, which had to be adapted to the sea change in the mutual fund industry caused by the extraordinary growth in funds’ equity holdings by the early 1960s.

Francis Coker was not a prolific publisher, in part because, as Joseph Bishop put it, he was a “perfectionist.” But Coker’s intellect was greatly admired by his colleagues. As Bayless Manning explained in tribute: “Consultation with Frank did not primarily produce extra information, or suggestions for research. It added new comprehension, new scales of proportion, new perceptions of relevancy, and new questions more interesting than the one with which one began.”

Coker was a dedicated and beloved teacher, and a fund that supports the first year small group teaching assistants was established in his honor at the Law School in 1963.