Jorge Luis Carro was a classmate and study partner of Fidel Castro, but after the 1959 revolution he came to oppose the Cuban dictator, defending hundreds of people facing revolutionary tribunals and helping many emigrate before fleeing himself to the United States in 1967.

Mr. Carro later moved to Sharonville, becoming dean of the University of Cincinnati's College of Law. He died Sunday at The Courtyard at Seasons, an assisted living home in Montgomery. He was 77.

''Fidel Castro studied with Jorge at his house, and I was very good friends with Castro's wife, Mirta,'' said his wife of 41 years, Edy Carro. ''Castro was a very charming man, but Jorge never felt comfortable around him. He never trusted him.''

After Castro came to power, Mr. Carro became a public defender and argued hundreds of cases in front of revolutionary tribunals, with many of the defendants facing firing squads if found guilty.

Mrs. Carro said her husband saved many lives, but not that of William Alexander Morgan, a Cleveland man who fought in the Cuban revolution but didn't back Castro. Morgan, before his execution in 1961, thanked her husband for his determined efforts in a hopeless cause.

Mrs. Carro said Che Guevara himself asked her husband to become a prosecutor for the tribunals.

''Not many people said no to Guevara, but Jorge said no. He said he was in his heart a defender and he would always defend, and Guevara respected that,'' she said.

''My dad was always trying to help people. That's what he did,'' said his daughter, Edy Carro Schlotman of Montgomery, who was born in Cuba. ''He used my baptism as a chance to work a lot of deals to get people out to America, and to get people medicine and whatever help they needed.''

In 1977, 10 years after he came to the United States, Mr. Carro moved to Cincinnati, where he was the head law librarian and professor of international law and ethical and professional responsibility at the University of Cincinnati. He later became dean of the law school, heading fund-raising efforts to build the law school building and established the Moot Court and Urban Morgan Human Rights Institute at the school.

A noted author, Mr. Carro's articles have been cited in opinions by Supreme Court justices, and one of his speeches was published in ''Vital Speeches,'' a publication of historic speeches.

''He loved Cuba and he was a patriotic man, but when he came to this country, this became his country. He loved America as much as he loved Cuba,'' Mrs. Carro said. ''He was a real Quixote - a dreamer but a man of action. He was an idealist who believed in justice, freedom and honesty.''

In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by two grandsons.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Michael Church, Sharonville, with visitation from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Hodapp Funeral Home, West Chester.

Memorials are suggested to Jorge Luis Carro Memorial Scholarship Fund, University of Cincinnati College of Law, 2624 Clifton Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio 45221.