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John Alexander Weir (December 13, 1894 – June 3, 1942) was an attorney, and the first Dean of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law from 1926–1942.

Early life
John Alexander Weir was born in Ardock, North Dakota on 13 December 1894 to the Reverend Richard and Margaret Moir Weir. He had three brothers and two sisters. Due to his father being called to new congregations the family traveled from Ardock to Hensell, Ontario when John was two years old, then to Petrolia, Ontario in 1898, and finally to Regina, Saskatchewan in 1901 where John attended the Regina public school. He continued his education by enrolling at Nutona Collegiate Institute in Saskatoon in 1908.

He graduated with University and Chancellor's Scholarships. John Weir entered University of Saskatchewan with the class of 1912, was chosen for Rhodes Scholarship for Saskatchewan in 1914. He graduated with Bachelor of Arts in 1915 and Bachelor of Laws in 1916 from University of Saskatchewan. Weir joined the Army Medical Corps in 1916 and transferred to the Royal Air Force where he was sent overseas. By the end of the war, he was a Flying Officer. In 1918, he resumed his Rhodes Scholarship at Merton College, Oxford, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in the School of Jurisprudence with first class honours. Weir was given another scholarship by Oxford University to continue his graduate studies for one more year. During his vacations in England, he traveled to Germany, Italy, and France. Weir married Elizabeth Teviotdale in 1926 by whom he had three children, named Elizabeth, Ramsay, and John.

Law career
He moved to Alberta to become the first professor of Law in 1921 and the first Dean of the University of Alberta Faculty of Law by 1926 a position he held until his death in 1942. He had a strong commitment to building and establishing the Faculty within the Alberta legal community despite many challenges such as changing enrollment from year to year and the faculty being severely understaffing. The full-time faculty staff consisted of Dean Weir and his assistant, there was a plan in place to hire additional staff in 1930, but it was canceled the next year, due to drastic cuts to the University of Alberta grant.

Nevertheless, despite having long teaching hours Dean Weir also took care of administrative tasks which were necessary for running the law school. Considering these circumstances, it should not be a surprise to anyone that he worked every day from early morning until late evening and often returned at night and even more often took work home. It was because of his sacrifices that the faculty managed to overcome serious obstacles and achieved sustainability.

He was respected by both students and collogues for being an excellent scholar and a great teacher. Dr. Francis G. Winspear who was teaching accounting at the University of Alberta at the time and shared an office with Dean Weir for a year described him as a “dedicated lawyer” who “was untiring in his devotion to the students.” Dr. Winspear mentioned, in his autobiography, the following quote from Dean Weir, while addressing one of the law students in contracts class, “It is always desirable, Mr.___, if moral concepts are not on your side, to be very careful of your law.”

In addition to scholarly excellence and many published writings, Dean Weir accomplished many things, including twenty-one years of exceptional service to the legal community by teaching and guiding its members in the province of Alberta. However, as others said it before the most significant contribution of Dean Weir is the developing of the University of Alberta Law School. When he started his work, it did not exist, but he left it, as a reputable law school for its legal education and graduates.