10/30/2026
Ted St. Antoine was a legal scholar and labor arbitrator who taught at the University of Michigan Law School for more than three decades and served as its dean from 1971 to 1978. Widely regarded as one of the nation’s leading authorities on labor and employment law, he died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 7 October 2026, after a very brief illness. He was 97 and had been in great health.
St. Antoine was born in St. Albans, Vermont, on 29 May 1929, the son of Arthur Joseph St. Antoine, a music store owner and pioneer radio broadcaster, and Mary Beatrice (Callery) St. Antoine, a registered nurse. He graduated summa cm laude from Fordham College and earned his law degree at Michigan, where he was editor in chief of the law review. He studied at the London School of Economics as a Fulbright scholar and served as an Army JAG officer in the Pentagon during the Korean War.
For seven years he practiced with the Washington firm of Woll, Mayer and St. Antoine, which represented the AFL-CIO and many unions, arguing chiefly before the U.S. Supreme Court. He worked alongside then-Senator John F. Kennedy on the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959 and helped lay groundwork for what became Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
St. Antoine joined the Michigan faculty in 1965 and taught labor law, employment law and contracts until 1998. Many colleagues at the Law School remember being his student before becoming his colleague, and many note that he generously supported and encouraged them through difficulties, both personal and professional. “And he was particularly helpful to those who were struggling academically or who felt uncertain in the unfamiliar atmosphere of a law school.” Others recall that St. Antoine typically carried a heavy class load because of the popularity of his teaching and his refusal to enforce course maximums. He felt that if a student wanted to learn, he would find the space to make it happen.
Throughout his leadership at the University, St. Antoine supported affirmative action in recruiting faculty and students. One recalls Ted as “a [r]emarkable leader and professor who had such an impact on me personally and on ensuring that African American students (especially from HBCUs) enrolled at Michigan Law in impressive numbers.” Others noted that St. Antoine oversaw a major expansion of the law library. St. Antoine advised a successor Dean faced with later headaches of growth that the trick was learning “when to howl at the sky and when to howl at the architect.”
St. Antoine co-edited a leading labor law casebook through its thirteenth edition and drafted the Model Employment Termination Act for the Uniform Law Commissioners, a proposal that employers should need good cause to dismiss workers after a probationary period. A labor arbitrator for 50 years, he heard dozens of Major League Baseball cases and was president of the National Academy of Arbitrators in 1999 and 2000. He chaired the UAW Public Review Board and the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board and received the American Arbitration Association’s George W. Taylor Award.
St. Antoine was married for 53 years to Elizabeth Lloyd (Frier) St. Antoine, who predeceased him. Ted and Lloyd welcomed generations of talent to their beloved Ann Arbor, where their dining room was a salon of collegial intellectualism on topics ranging from theater to international relations. Lloyd was a true partner and beloved, infectious presence by his side.
St. Antoine’s legacy of universal respect and admiration is scarcely capable of summary. Throughout the legal profession, business, and academia, St. Antoine is universally remembered as a kind, charming, ebullient, witty presence. Colleagues at the Law School describe him as “legendary” and have remarked: “The Saint in his name was fully realized in the man himself. A truly perfect soul.” A colleague in the bar describes him as “royalty in the labor arbitration business.” Another noted that he keeps a markup of the LMRA generated in St. Antoine’s course on his desk three decades after graduating.
Recalling St. Antoine’s signature magnanimity, one colleague observed: “in the context of graduation I wrote Ted a letter on behalf of my classmates, vehemently objecting to something he did. To my astonishment, Ted found my parents and me at graduation and told my parents how proud he was of my hard-hitting letter, notwithstanding his disagreement.” Another recalls St. Antoine as “a master storyteller who knew how to deliver a punchline like few people do. You could tell when it was coming by this little hint of mischief that flashed across his face. He modeled for everyone that kindness and intellectual rigor are not competing qualities but complementary ones. Watching how he did it was something to see.”
St. Antoine cannot be forgotten by anyone who knew him. As one friend recalled:
….[T]he National Academy of Arbitrators wanted to produce a book in honor of its 75th anniversary and he [Ted] wasn’t able to take the lead on it. He asked if I would consider allowing him to nominate me for the job. NO obligation to accept.
I wrote back and thanked him for his kind words. I said of course he could suggest my name for consideration. Not 60 seconds after I hit SEND, the phone rang. It was the president of the Academy. She said, “Thank you for agreeing to edit the new book.”
What I’m trying to say is that Ted St. Antoine was a genius.
St. Antoine is survived by four children and seven grandchildren.
