Myron L. Gordon (February 11, 1918November 3, 2009) was an American lawyer and jurist from

Kenosha, Wisconsin Kenosha () is a city in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Wisconsin, fourth-most populous city in Wisconsin, with a population of 99,986 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. S ...

. He 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. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, serving from 1967 until taking senior status in 1983. He previously served five years as a justice of the

Wisconsin Supreme Court The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the Supreme court, highest and final court of appeals in the state judicial system of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. In addition to hearing appeals of lower Wisconsin court decisions, the Wisconsin Supreme Court also ...

, and was a Wisconsin circuit court judge for seven years in

Milwaukee County Milwaukee County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At the 2020 census, the population was 939,489, down from 947,735 in 2010. It is both the most populous and most densely populated county in Wisconsin, containing about 1 ...

Education and career

Born in

, Gordon received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

in 1939 and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree from the same institution in 1939. He received a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in 1942. He was Lieutenant in the

United States Naval Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2004, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called reservists, are categorized as being in either the S ...

from 1944 to 1946. He was in private practice in

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

from 1945 to 1950. He was a civil court judge in

from 1950 to 1954. He ran unsuccessfully for a

Wisconsin circuit court The Wisconsin circuit courts are the general trial courts in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. There are currently 69 circuits in the state, divided into 9 judicial administrative districts. Circuit court judges hear and decide both civil and crimina ...

judgeship in 1953, losing to Leo B. Hanley. He ran again the following year, and this time defeated incumbent judge Elmer W. Roller. He served a full six-year term as circuit judge and was re-elected in 1960. In 1961, he sought election to the

in the seat being vacated by the retirement of chief justice John E. Martin. Gordon survived the nonpartisan primary in March 1961, and went on to face former state attorney general Stewart G. Honeck in the general election. Gordon prevailed with 52% of the vote in the April general election.

Federal judicial service

Gordon was nominated by President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...

on January 16, 1967, to the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (in case citations, E.D. Wis.) is a federal trial court of limited jurisdiction. The court is under the auspices of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ...

, to a new seat created by 80 Stat. 75. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on March 2, 1967, and received his commission on March 4, 1967. He assumed senior status on February 12, 1983. He served in that status until his death on November 3, 2009, in

Palm Desert Palm Desert is a city in the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County, California. The city is located in the Colorado Desert arm of the Sonoran Desert, about east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The populat ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Personal life and family

Myron Gordon was a son of Jewish immigrants Samuel R. and Janet (' Ruppa) Gordon. His father was born in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and his mother was born in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Myron had one older brother, Norvan, who was a medical doctor in Milwaukee County. Myron Gordon married Ruth Peggy Siesel on August 16, 1942. They had three children together before her death from post-surgical complications in 1973. Gordon subsequently remarried, and was survived by his second wife, Myra.

Electoral history

Wisconsin Circuit Court (1953)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 7, 1953

Wisconsin Circuit Court (1954, 1960)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 6, 1954 , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 5, 1960

Wisconsin Supreme Court (1961)

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Nonpartisan Primary, March 7, 1961 , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General Election, April 4, 1961

References

Sources

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Myron L. 1918 births 2009 deaths University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin United States district court judges appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson Politicians from Kenosha, Wisconsin Justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Wisconsin circuit court judges United States Navy officers Military personnel from Wisconsin United States Navy reservists United States Navy personnel of World War II American lawyers Jewish American people in Wisconsin politics