Ambrose Tighe

Ambrose TigheAmbrose Tighe (May 8, 1859 – November 11, 1928) was an American lawyer, politician, and academic from Minnesota. He was one of the five co-founders of William Mitchell College of Law.

Early life Tighe was a first-generation American, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. His grandfather, an Episcopalian missionary, had emigrated there from Ireland in the early nineteenth century. His father James was also a lawyer, educated at New York University, although he did not practice extensively, focusing instead on a career in business. and the Skull and Bones secret society.

Career After graduating from Yale, he briefly worked as a reporter for the New York Tribune, and then relocated to Frankfort, Kentucky. He read law there and was admitted to the state bar in 1880. In January 1882, the college made him a lecturer in the Latin Department, and he taught courses on Roman Law until June 1885.

Tighe published his notes the following year in a book entitled, The Development of the Roman Constitution.

This was followed in 1917 by a two-year engagement as lead counsel for the infamous Minnesota Commission of Public Safety, then a term as president of the Minnesota State Bar Association in 1920 and an appointment as St. Paul City Attorney from 1920-28.

In 1900, while President of the Ramsey County Bar Association, he and Hiram F. Stevens, Moses Clapp, Thomas D. O'Brien, and Clarence Halbert founded the St. Paul College of Law, the first predecessor school of William Mitchell College of Law. Tighe served on the Board of Trustees and taught courses there on public corporations until his death in 1928.

Influence Tighe was very well-connected, considered to be one the social elites in St. Paul at the turn of the twentieth century. One of his many affiliations was with The Informal Club, a small organization whose members included James J. Hill, Cass Gilbert, Judge Walter Henry Sanborn, General Wesley Merritt, Congressman Thomas Wilson, and Justice William B. Mitchell. Tighe was also close with President William Howard Taft (S&B 1878) and U.S. Solicitor General Lloyd Wheaton Bowers (S&B 1879).

Publications

The Theory and Law of Water Works Securities, 13 Yale L.J. 165 (1903). The Theory of the Minnesota 'Safety Commission' Act, 3 Minn. L. Rev. 1 (1918).