Wednesday, July 22, 2009

R.I.P. Richard Givan

The state's former Chief Justice, Richard Givan, who served on the Indiana Supreme Court for 26 years, died yesterday at the age of 88. The Star's Diana Penner has a nice reflection on his career here. The obituary in the Star can be accessed here. I had the pleasure of sitting on several initiation panels with Givan at the Indiana Supreme Court chambers for my legal fraternity, Phi Delta Phi. Givan always had some great insights on the Court to share with laws students at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, as well as plenty of funny stories he experienced from nearly a half-century of work in and around the Court. Perhaps nobody in Indiana had more institutional knowledge of the Court than Givan. One of my favorite Givan lines was this: "Chief Justice Shepard likes to talk about the first minorities to serve on this Court. Well, I'm about as much of minority as you can find in Indiana. I'm a Quaker."

3 comments:

Jon Easter said...

I knew Judge Givan as we were both Decatur Central Lions. He was active in the Lions as long as he could be and was just a fine man. He will be missed.

JudgeNot said...

Justice Givan was an outstanding jurist and all around nice guy. He was a lawyer's lawyer and will be missed.

Paul K. Ogden said...

I went to law school with Justice Givan's daughter, Libby, and worked with her at the Attorney General's Office. Very down to earth lady, especially considering her father was Chief Justice. We conservatives have long missed his presence at the center of the bench.