Two of Harvard's graduate schools filled recently established professorships at their schools this week.

The Kennedy School appointed Thomas E. Patterson, a political scientist who specializes in American politics and political communication, to the Bradlee professorship of government and the press.

The Law School announced that Gray Professor of Law David Westfall has been appointed to the Schipper professorship, named for the late Carl F. Schipper Jr., whose estate gave $2 million to endow the chair.

The Bradlee professorship was established by Washington Post Editor Benjamin C. Bradlee '43 to support teaching and research about "the role of the free press in a democracy," according to the Harvard Gazette.

Bradlee is best known for heading the Post when it broke the Watergate scandal.

Patterson, who previously taught at Syracuse University, has written extensively on the media, authoring Out of Order and The Mass Media Election.

He spent one semester at Harvard in 1991 as a visiting professor at the Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

"I can think of no one better qualified to explore the complex interaction between those who govern, those who record and explain what government does and the broader citizenry," Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye Jr. told the Gazette.

Schipper, who established the chair at the Law School, was a law school alumnus of the class of 1929 and was active in alumni affairs, according to a press release from the Law School.

Schipper, who worked at the Boston law firm of Goodwin, Proctor and Hoar until his death last October, was a specialist in the areas of probate and estate planning.

"[Schipper] was a devoted lawyer , from page 1and loyal alumnus of Harvard Law School," Dean Robert C. Clark said in the release. "His long career in law practice led him to an ever-growing appreciation of the importance of good teaching and scholarship at schools like Harvard."

Westfall, who will assume the Schipper professorship, has taught at Harvard since 1955.

He specializes in areas of estate planning, family law and labor law