Boden, Robert F.

English

bepress Legal Repository

The Honorable Bruce F. Beilfuss, Chief Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court (1976-1983)

Marquette University Law School

Marquette Law ReviewVolume 66Issue 3 Spring 1983 Article 9The Honorable Bruce F. Beilfuss, Chief Justice,Wisconsin Supreme Court (1976-1983)Robert F. BodenFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulrPart of the Law CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion inMarquette Law Review by an authorized administrator of Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contactmegan.obrien@marquette.edu.Repository CitationRobert F. Boden, The Honorable Bruce F. Beilfuss, Chief Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court (1976-1983), 66 Marq. L. Rev. 637 (1983).Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol66/iss3/9-. usic Buc FBe() sDEDICATIONTHE HONORABLE BRUCE F.BEILFUSS, CHIEF JUSTICE,WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT(1976-1983)ROBERT F. BODEN*It was my distinct pleasure to accept the invitation of theBoard of Editors to write this essay for the issue of the Mar-quette Law Review dedicated to our Chief Justice, Honor-able Bruce F. Beilfuss, upon the occasion of his retirementafter twenty years of service as a member of the SupremeCourt of Wisconsin. Our acquaintance goes back moreyears than his service on the court, because we first metwhen I, only a few months out of law school, participated inone of my first pretrial conferences in the old courthouse atBaraboo where he presided as judge of the seventeenth cir-cuit. I remember quite clearly the courtesy and fairnesswhich he exhibited on that day in dealing with a young neo-phyte up against the leading trial lawyers of Sauk County. Itwas not the treatment commonly practiced by the judiciaryof thirty years ago in rural parts of the state in dealing with"youngsters" sent out from the big firms in Milwaukee onbehalf of negligence defendants and their insurers.It struck me then, and nothing has happened in the ensu-ing thirty-two years to change my opinion, that here was agentleman of the law with the best attributes of what we call"judicial temperament," able to command the respect ofcounsel and litigants alike without resort to the devicessometimes used to establish and impose judicial authority.Being a judge, I thought then, "comes naturally" to this manwho obviously, even to a visitor with little seniority in thebar, enjoyed the respect and support of the lawyers of the* Dean and Professor of Law, Marquette University.MIRQ UETTE LAW REVIEWcircuit over which he presided. Subsequently, and by pro-motion, his jurisdiction was expanded so that the bar of Wis-consin came to know him and to admire him - just as hewas admired by his professional colleagues in the seven-teenth circuit.Bruce F. Beilfuss was born in Withee, Wisconsin, on Jan-uary 8, 1915. To those not intimately acquainted with thegeography of Wisconsin, it should be noted that Withee isthe first station on the Soo Line Railroad west of the junc-tion of the St. Paul and Duluth lines of that company at thewell-known town of Owen in Clark County. He was gradu-ated from Neillsville High School at the depth of the GreatDepression in 1932. He then enrolled at the University ofWisconsin in Madison, receiving his B.A. degree in 1936 andhis degree from the law school in 1938. He returned to hisnative Clark County to practice, opening a law office at an-other Soo Line town, Abbotsford, where he resided andpracticed until 1941, when he was elected district attorney.At this time he moved to the county seat, Neillsville, wherehe resided until his elevation to the supreme court.The Chief served in the United States Navy duringWorld War II, between 1943 and 1946, after which he re-turned to Neillsville, again taking up his duties as districtattorney. He was appointed judge of the seventeenth judi-cial circuit by Governor Oscar Rennebohm. He was electedto a full term as circuit judge in 1951 and reelected in 1957.After a distinguished career on the trial bench, and uponthe retirement of Chief Justice Timothy Brown, JudgeBeilfuss sought and was elected by the people to fill the seaton the Wisconsin Supreme Court vacated by this retirement.He is one of a distinct minority of the justices of the supremecourt serving in this century who gained their seats in thefirst instance through popular election, most such vacanciesbeing filled by gubernatorial appointment. After serving hisfirst term, the people returned him to office in 1973 for thesecond decade of his service on the supreme court. Beingclose to the mandatory retirement age of 70, though entitledto stand for re-election in 1983, he declined to do so andannounced his retirement at the conclusion of his second fullterm, July 31, 1983.[Vol. 66:637BEILFUSS DEDICATIONJustice Beilfuss came to the Wisconsin Supreme Court ata fascinating time in its distinguished history. It was thehigh-water mark of the era of revision and reform of com-mon-law doctrine dominated in large measure by the juris-prudential thought of Justices George R. Currie and E.Harold Hallows. Early in his appellate career, and through-out it in this period of transition and change, Justice Beilfussestablished his reputation as an independent thinker, as ajurisprudent who approached his work carefully and, so hisopinions seemed, uninfluenced by popular trends or particu-lar schools of jurisprudential thought. What emerges froman analysis of his judicial work product is the conviction thathere is a man truly of the common law, a case analyst, arespecter of precedent in the best tradition of the commonlaw, but one not afraid to apply the "amending hand" whichSir Edward Coke called "blessed" and which is the lifebloodof the same common law. If a word can describe the contri-bution of Justice Beilfuss to twenty years of Wisconsin juris-prudence, that word would most probably be "balance." Heachieved, among his brethren at the bar who are not privy tothe conferences of the court but who can and do study theopinions, the reputation of being the court's "swing man" inmany an important decision. Given a court divided three-to-three, the question among lawyers often was "what willBeilfuss do?"In May of 1976, while travelling home from the annualmeeting of the American Law Institute, Chief Justice HoraceWilkie was unexpectedly stricken with a fatal heart attack,and the next day Justice Beilfuss, the senior justice of thecourt, succeeded him as Chief Justice of Wisconsin. Thus,for the past seven of his twenty years of service on thesupreme court, our honoree has discharged the administra-tive responsibilities of heading the third branch of govern-ment in addition to his duties as an appellate judge. I havesome feeling for the dual responsibility, having both admin-istrative and academic responsibilities of my own. I knowthe frustrations and the difficulty of trying to mix the twoand of trying to adequately discharge both. When, at a laterdate and from a better perspective, the legal history of thisstate is written to include the tenure of Chief Justice Beilfuss,I predict it will praise his years at the helm.1983]MARQ UETTE LAW REVIEWIt was not an easy seven years; it was a time when thework begun by Chief Justices Hallows and Wilkie to reor-ganize the judicial department required completion. It wascompleted. The constitutional amendments to the judicialarticle of the state constitution stand as a monument to thethree chiefjustices in whose tenures they were advanced andaccomplished. It has also been a time of regrettable conflictand discord between the judicial and legislative branches ofgovernment, including sometimes the executive, through allof which our Chief has emerged a statesman. He will stepdown in July of 1983, having led the judiciary of this statethrough one of the most difficult periods of its history.Last year our sister institution, the University of Wiscon-sin Law School, named the Chief Justice it§ Alumnus of theYear, an honor richly deserved. This award recognized, inaddition to the professional achievements outlined above, along history of the Chiefs service to the public. He has anenviable record in that regard and one which goes beyondprofessional affiliations. He is, of course, a member of theState Bar of Wisconsin, the American Bar Association, theDane County Bar Association, and also of the American Ju-dicature Society, the American Law Institute, the Institute ofJudicial Administration and the National Association of Ap-pellate Judges. He has also been active in the American Le-gion and as a Post Commander of the Veterans of ForeignWars, as well as a large number of local and statewide civicorganizations.In every respect Chief Justice Bruce F. Beilfuss epito-mizes excellence in a lawyer. We who reside in Wisconsin,particularly those of us in the legal profession, can and dotake pride in the fact that a man of his stature has served forso long upon our highest court. The Marquette Law Reviewis pleased to join the other legal institutions of this statewhich have, over the past year, saluted the Chief Justiceupon his distinguished career and wished him well in hisretirement.[Vol. 66:637

https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1985&amp;context=mulr

The Honorable Bruce F. Beilfuss, Chief Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court (1976-1983)

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

bepress Legal Repository

Marquette University Law School