Stephen Zamora has died.

We share the profoundly sad news that Professor Stephen Thomas Zamora of the University of Houston Law Center has died at the age of 72. He died suddenly from a heart attack early July in Mexico. He had been spending time in Mexico with his wife and college sweetheart of almost 50 years, Lois Parkinson Zamora.

at the time of his passing he was concluding a year living and reveling in the beauty of Mexico with his wife of almost 50 years, Lois Parkinson Zamora. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?pid=180654761#sthash.Gp0LxC0o.dpuf

at the time of his passing he was concluding a year living and reveling in the beauty of Mexico with his wife of almost 50 years, Lois Parkinson Zamora. - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?pid=180654761#sthash.Gp0LxC0o.dpuf

Professor Zamora had joined the Houston Law Center faculty in 1978, and served as the Law Center's Dean from 1995 to 2000. He earned a B.A. degree from Stanford University in 1966 and a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall) in 1972, where he graduated first in his class and served as Chief Articles Editor of the California Law Review. At the Law Center, Professor Zamora directs the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, and also serves as Director of the North American Consortium on Legal Education. Before joining the faculty of the University of Houston Law Center in 1978, he practiced international law in Washington, D.C., first as an associate in the law firm of Clearly, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton, and then as an attorney with the World Bank. He was a Senior Fulbright Lecturer in Mexico, and had been a visiting professor at Yale Law School and Fordham Law School. An expert on NAFTA, in 1996, Zamora served as a member of a NAFTA dispute resolution panel that decided the first government-to-government dispute under NAFTA (U.S. v. Canada -- Dairy, Poultry and Eggs from the United States).

Professor Zamora was a member of the American Law Institute, of the American Society of International Law, and of the American Society of Comparative Law. In 2006, he received the highest distinction awarded by the Mexican government to a foreign national, the Order of the Aztec Eagle, in recognition of his work in promoting U.S. - Mexican understanding. He was the lead author of the book Mexican Law, published in 2004 by Oxford University Press, and he authored numerous articles and book chapters on international economic law, international banking law, international trade law (NAFTA), international monetary law, and Mexican law. Professor Zamora's areas of expertise included contracts, international trade law, conflicts of law, Mexican Law, and NAFTA.

He was deeply respected and admired in the legal academy, particularly among all those professors who knew his work with Mexico. A charming, gentle soul, he will be greatly missed. We extend our condolences to his family, friends, students, and colleagues.

(mew)