Ewing Thomas Kerr (January 21, 1900 – July 1, 1992) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Wyoming The United States District Court for the District of Wyoming (in case citations, D. Wyo.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the state of Wyoming and those portions of Yellowstone National Park situated in Montana a ...

Education and career

Born in

Bowie Bowie may refer to: People * Bowie (surname), origin of the surname and a list of people with the surname, including particularly: ** James Bowie (c. 1796–1836), Texan revolutionary ** David Bowie (1947–2016), English singer, songwriter, and ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, Kerr attended the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado s ...

and received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

in 1923 and a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree from

University of Central Oklahoma The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO or Central State) is a public university in Edmond, Oklahoma. It is the third largest university in Oklahoma, with more than 17,000 students and approximately 434 full-time and 400 adjunct faculty. Founde ...

in 1923. He

read law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under th ...

to enter the bar in 1927. He was in private practice in

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian languages, Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized tribe, federally recognize ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the sou ...

from 1927 to 1929. He was an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal go ...

for the District of Wyoming from 1930 to 1933. He was the

Attorney General of Wyoming Wyoming Attorney General is the title of the senior legal officer of the State of Wyoming. The attorney general is appointed by the Governor. The 38th and current attorney general is Bridget Hill. Attorneys general of Wyoming References Exte ...

from 1939 to 1943, and an attorney for the

Wyoming Senate The Wyoming Senate is the upper house of the Wyoming State Legislature. There are 30 Senators in the Senate, representing an equal number of constituencies across Wyoming, each with a population of at least 17,000. The Senate meets at the Wyo ...

in 1943. He was in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

from 1943 to 1946 and became a major.''The Historical Encyclopedia of Wyoming, Volume 1'', Wyoming Historical Institute, Wyoming, 1970, page 262. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he served in the Allied Command in Italy and became head of the legal division in that region. In 1945, he reorganized the civilian courts in Austria.

Federal judicial service

On October 22, 1955, Kerr received a

recess appointment In the United States, a recess appointment is an appointment by the president of a federal official when the U.S. Senate is in recess. Under the U.S. Constitution's Appointments Clause, the President is empowered to nominate, and with the a ...

from President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Judge

Thomas Blake Kennedy Thomas Blake Kennedy (April 4, 1874 – May 21, 1957) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming. Education and career Born in Commerce, Michigan, Kennedy received an Artium Baccalaureu ...

. Formally nominated to the same seat by President Eisenhower on January 12, 1956, he was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and ...

on March 1, 1956, and received his commission the following day. He was a member of the

Judicial Conference of the United States The Judicial Conference of the United States, formerly known as the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges, was created by the United States Congress in 1922 with the principal objective of framing policy guidelines for administration of judicial cour ...

from 1962 to 1964. He assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on September 26, 1975. Kerr served until his death on July 1, 1992.

Honor

The

Ewing T. Kerr Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse The Casper Federal Building, at 111 South Wolcott Street in Casper, Wyoming, was built in 1932. It is now known as the Ewing T. Kerr Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. It is ...

Casper Casper may refer to: People * Casper (given name) * Casper (surname) * Casper (Maya ruler) (422–487?), ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque * Tok Casper, first known king of Maya city-state Quiriguá in Guatemala, ruling beginning in 426 * Dav ...

, Wyoming, was named in Kerr's honor."Preservation: Ewing T. Kerr Federal Building and Courthouse"
''

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gove ...

website'', updated May 20, 2021.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerr, Ewing Thomas 1900 births 1992 deaths Assistant United States Attorneys People from Bowie, Texas People from Cheyenne, Wyoming University of Colorado alumni University of Oklahoma alumni University of Central Oklahoma alumni Wyoming Attorneys General Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming United States district court judges appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower 20th-century American judges United States Army officers United States Army personnel of World War II 20th-century American lawyers United States federal judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corps