Walter Howard Evans (April 17, 1870 – July 13, 1959) was a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

of the

United States Customs Court The United States Court of International Trade (case citations: Ct. Int'l Trade), or CIT, is a U.S. federal court that adjudicates civil actions arising out of U.S. customs and international trade laws. Seated in Lower Manhattan, New York City, ...

Education and career

Born on April 17, 1870, in New Middletown,

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, Evans graduated from North Indiana Normal School in Valparaiso, Indiana, at age 16, in 1886. He then taught school in southern Indiana and Tennessee for 12 years. He returned to Valparaiso for one year of law school in 1897, where he was one of the secretaries of the Indiana Senate. He then received a

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

degree in 1899 from

Valparaiso University Valparaiso University (Valpo) is a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana, United States. It is an independent Lutheran university with five colleges. It enrolls nearly 2,300 students and has a campus. The university is known for its Luthe ...

. 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 ...

in 1905 from the

University of Oregon School of Law The University of Oregon School of Law is a public law school in the U.S. state of Oregon. Housed in the Knight Law Center, it is Oregon's only state funded law school. The school, founded in 1884, is located on the University of Oregon campus i ...

, then located in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. Evans enlisted in the Army Quartermaster Corps and was sent to Puerto Rico, where he was a clerk for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Quartermaster Department

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

from 1898 to 1903. He mustered out of the Army in 1903, and graduated from the University of Oregon Law School (then located in Portland) in 1905. 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 gov ...

for the District of Oregon from 1908 to 1912. Appointed to be Multnomah County District Attorney as part of the governor's vice clean-up campaign, he then was elected to that office twice. He was a state district attorney in the Fourth Judicial District of Oregon from 1912 to 1921. He served as a Circuit Court Judge for the Fourth Judicial District of Oregon from 1921 to 1931. He was then appointed to U.S. Customs Court.

Federal Judicial Service

Evans was nominated by President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

on January 28, 1931, to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Byron Sylvester Waite. 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 February 14, 1931, and received his commission on February 23, 1931. His service terminated on May 31, 1941, due to his retirement. He was succeeded by Judge William A. Ekwall.

Personal life

Evans married May Ball, the daughter of a prominent local banker, Erasmus Ball, in Valparaiso on August 11, 1898. They had three children, Mary (born 1900 in Puerto Rico), Alice (born 1901 in Puerto Rico), and Walter Howard Evans Jr. (born March 12, 1911, in Portland). Evans died on July 13, 1959, in Portland.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Walter Howard 1870 births 1959 deaths Judges of the United States Customs Court People from Indiana Valparaiso University alumni University of Oregon alumni Educators from Oregon Oregon state court judges District attorneys in Oregon United States Army officers United States Article I federal judges appointed by Herbert Hoover Assistant United States attorneys