Paul Johnson DeVault

Paul Johnson DeVault was born in Logansport, Indiana, on April 4, 1908. He was raised in Kewanna, Indiana, where he graduated from Kewanna High School in 1925. That fall he enrolled at Indiana University, where he received his B.A. degree (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1930. He began taking law school classes while still an undergraduate and untimely received his J.D. degree in 1932. As a law student, he served as the legal research assistant to Herman B Wells, who at the time was on leave from the faculty to direct the recodification of the statutes governing the financial institutions of Indiana. With the experience gained from law school and working with Wells, he soon found a job with the firm that became Krieg, DeVault, Alexander and Capehart. Early in his career, he was charged with giving legal guidance to the agency charged with liquidating the insolvent banks and thrifts in central Indiana. In 1934, he was named General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis. He interrupted his career to serve as a naval combat officer during WW II. After the war, he returned to his firm and broadened his practice in a wide spectrum of civil litigation. DeVault served on the Board of the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions, as well as the Civil Rights and the Fire Prevention Commissions of Indiana. He was deeply involved in his community and church organizations and served on multiple boards and task forces. DeVault guided his firm into becoming an eminent institution of over fifty members and in guiding the banks and thrifts of the state for over five decades. Two governors name him a Sagamore of the Wabash. Paul J. DeVault was inducted into the Indiana University Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 1989. He died April 11, 1993, at the age of 85.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/notablealumni/1105/thumbnail.jp