White, Byron, 1917-2002.

U. S. Supreme Court Justice

 

Education:
B.A., University of Colorado.
Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University
JD, Yale Law School
 

Obituaries:

Byron White, known for his keen mind and his 30 years on the Supreme Court, died Monday in Denver at age 84.

Byron White: A supreme life
'Colorado legend' made history on high court, football field despite his small-town roots
By Lisa Levitt Ryckman, News Staff Writer
April 16, 2002

Byron White, a son of small-town Colorado who became a football hero, a decorated Naval officer and a longtime Supreme Court Justice, died Monday in Denver. He was 84.

White was known for his prowess on the football field, his brilliance in school and his longevity on the U.S. Supreme Court, where he spent more than 30 years.

"He was sort of a larger-than-life person," said Denver attorney James Scarboro, one of White's former Supreme Court law clerks. "He was such an outstanding man in every way."

Gov. Bill Owens ordered flags lowered to half-staff Monday in White's honor. "Byron White was a Colorado legend," Owens said.

The world saw "Whizzer" White as a man who excelled in every arena, but friends describe him as a shy man who fiercely guarded his privacy and never sought the limelight. He rarely gave interviews, even for his own biography.

In The Man Who Once Was Whizzer, former White law clerk Dennis Hutchinson argues that White's values were shaped by his Depression-era upbringing on Colorado's plains, his close-knit family of four and his relationship with his older brother, Clayton "Sam" White, whom he idolized.

"They were loving admirers of each other in a tough world," said Peg White, 85, wife of Sam, 89, now a retired doctor in Albuquerque, N.M. "Of course, they enjoyed one-upmanship with each other occasionally."

Besides his brother, White is survived by his wife, the former Marion Stearns; a son, Denver attorney Charles Byron "Barney" White; a daughter, Nancy White Lippe; and six grandchildren.

Byron Raymond White, born June 8, 1917, in Fort Collins, was raised in Wellington, a nearby town of 350. He and Sam worked in their father's small lumberyard and in the sugar-beet fields.

"It was tough, but you just did it," White said in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News in 2000.

White graduated first in his high school class of six in Wellington and won a scholarship that covered the $75 tuition to the University of Colorado. Years later, White still had happy memories of his small-town schooling.

"There were wonderful teachers, wonderful administrators," White said. "They were all bound and determined to get the kids to succeed, to get them to go ahead with their education. But it seemed to me that going to college was just natural."

At CU, White was a three-year starter in baseball and an all-conference guard in basketball, but his greatest athletic achievements came on the football field. In his last year at CU, he was named to the All-America team after he led the nation in scoring, gained 1,121 yards on 181 carries and had the longest kickoff and punt returns. He also completed 21 passes, scored 16 touchdowns and kicked 23 extra points.

"I never had any real thoughts about football," White said. "But my brother was an end on the team, so I joined."

CU retired his jersey, No. 24.

"He was one hell of a football player," said former Colorado Gov. John Vanderhoof, who grew up in Fort Collins. "I would hitchhike over to Boulder to watch him play at CU. He was a great athlete with a great brain to go with it."

Scarboro remembers a story about White during one game. "It was halftime, and he was on the rubbing table," Scarboro said. "And he was reading a physics book."

That was how White preferred to be regarded: as a scholar rather than an athlete, a Phi Beta Kappa rather than a halfback. White resented the nickname "Whizzer," given to him by Rocky Mountain News sportswriter Leonard Cahn. He wanted to be known for his academic and professional achievements rather than his speed.

White graduated first in his class at CU, earning a bachelor's degree in economics. Like his brother, White won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University, but delayed it for a semester so he could play professional football with Pittsburgh. His contract for $15,800 made him the highest paid player of his time, and it paid his way through Yale Law School.

He split his time between Yale and the NFL, playing two seasons with the Detroit Lions. He led the league in rushing in 1940, and was first in his law school class.

"He's the most wonderful man I've ever known. No man ever had a better friend," said Bob Harry, an attorney who met White at Yale in 1939 and worked with him in Denver. "He guarded his privacy, but with his friends and people who needed him or needed help, he was a warm, wonderful person."

After law school, White married Stearns, a daughter of former CU President Robert Stearns, spent a year clerking for Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson and joined a Denver law firm.

Twice in his life -- once during his time at Oxford and again during his stint as a Naval intelligence officer from 1942 to 1946 -- White met and befriended John F. Kennedy. White earned two bronze stars during his war service.

When Kennedy ran for president in 1960, White ran his state and national campaigns and later became deputy attorney general under Robert Kennedy. He had been on the job a year when President Kennedy nominated him for the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Monday, Sen. Edward Kennedy called White the best America had to offer.

"He was also a true friend and close adviser to the Kennedy family," Kennedy said. "He was one of the earliest supporters of President Kennedy's campaign, and was the right hand of Robert Kennedy at the Department of Justice. Justice White served the nation with great distinction, a deep passion for the law and a commitment to excellence."

White later said he never wanted to be a judge but was glad he agreed to try it.

"I liked it. I really did," he said. "I thought I ought to get out after 15 years. But I didn't. And I'm happy I didn't. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would be."

White tended to side with the more conservative justices and is probably best known for his dissents in the 1966 Miranda decision, which requires police to read suspects their rights before arrest; and Roe v. Wade in 1973, which gave women a constitutional right to abortion.

"The Court apparently values the convenience of the pregnant mother more than the continued existence and development of the life or potential life that she carries," White wrote in his dissent, which was joined by William Rehnquist.

"In a sensitive area such as this, involving as it does issues over which reasonable men may easily and heatedly differ, I cannot accept the Court's exercise of its clear power of choice by interposing a constitutional barrier to state efforts to protect human life and by investing mothers and doctors with the constitutionally protected right to exterminate it."

White called them as he saw them, said Harold Bruff, dean of the CU Law School.

"He was a lawyer's justice. He was intensely interested in the facts, so he worked very hard. He tried very hard to get the cases right," Bruff said. "He didn't have a kind of predesignated way for knowing how life should work."

In 1990, the Byron White Center for the Study of Constitutional Law was established at CU, and in 1994, the federal courthouse in Denver was named for him.

"He was tough-minded, solid, he liked to get in a good argument," said Gene Nichol, former CU law school dean. "He enjoyed it if you would return it in kind."

Not that Nichol ever won an argument with White.

"I didn't necessarily agree with every aspect of his jurisprudence but I had the highest regard for the integrity of it. I think he literally had a modest view of the role of the U.S. Supreme Court, which is rare for such an accomplished person."

When White retired in 1993, only nine judges had served longer than his 31 years and two months.

"He was a remarkable man of great accomplishments, but still so direct and personable," said Denver U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch, who first met White in 1955 while interviewing for a job at White's law firm. "I'll sure miss him. It was always a pleasure to be with him, and he had a wonderful sense of humor."

White displayed it during his 2000 interview with the News. Asked how he thought he would be remembered, White replied, "I guess it depends on who you ask. Some will say, 'Gosh, he's a good fisherman.' Others will say, 'He's a hell of a dancer.' "

"But they'll all say, 'He's honest.' "