16th United States Supreme Court Chief Justice. He served for 33 years on the Supreme Court from 1972 to 2005, and oversaw such notable issues as: The Impeachment Trial of President William J. Clinton (1999) and the Presidential Election Challenge of Vice President Albert Gore towards President George W. Bush (2000). Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after graduating from Shorewood High School in 1942, he attended Kenyon College for one year, then enlisted into the Army Air Force, serving from 1943 to 1946 as a weather observer in North Africa during World War II (WWII). Leaving military service, he attended Stanford University under the GI Bill, receiving a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in political science. In 1950, he received a second master's degree in government from Harvard University. He returned to Stanford University to earn a law degree, graduating first in his class (oddly enough, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor graduated third in his class, as well). He then went to Washington, D.C., to work as a law clerk for Justice Robert H. Jackson, where he wrote the argument against school desegregation while the Supreme Court was considering Brown vs. the Board of Education case. From 1953 to 1969, he was in private practice in Phoenix, Arizona, and in 1964, was active in Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign bid. When Richard Nixon was elected President in 1968, he returned to Washington DC, to serve as chief lawyer to Attorney General John Mitchell. President Richard Nixon appointed him to the United States Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 1971 to replace retiring justice John Marshall Harlan. A conservative judge, he was initially a dissenter on the liberal Supreme Court; he would live long enough to see the Supreme Court become a conservative court. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan elevated him to Chief Justice. In October 2004, he announced that he was suffering from thyroid cancer and was receiving radiation and chemotherapy treatments. He died at his home in Arlington, Virginia, with his three children present (his wife died in 1991 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to her husband, William).

16th United States Supreme Court Chief Justice. He served for 33 years on the Supreme Court from 1972 to 2005, and oversaw such notable issues as: The Impeachment Trial of President William J. Clinton (1999) and the Presidential Election Challenge of Vice President Albert Gore towards President George W. Bush (2000). Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after graduating from Shorewood High School in 1942, he attended Kenyon College for one year, then enlisted into the Army Air Force, serving from 1943 to 1946 as a weather observer in North Africa during World War II (WWII). Leaving military service, he attended Stanford University under the GI Bill, receiving a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in political science. In 1950, he received a second master's degree in government from Harvard University. He returned to Stanford University to earn a law degree, graduating first in his class (oddly enough, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor graduated third in his class, as well). He then went to Washington, D.C., to work as a law clerk for Justice Robert H. Jackson, where he wrote the argument against school desegregation while the Supreme Court was considering Brown vs. the Board of Education case. From 1953 to 1969, he was in private practice in Phoenix, Arizona, and in 1964, was active in Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign bid. When Richard Nixon was elected President in 1968, he returned to Washington DC, to serve as chief lawyer to Attorney General John Mitchell. President Richard Nixon appointed him to the United States Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 1971 to replace retiring justice John Marshall Harlan. A conservative judge, he was initially a dissenter on the liberal Supreme Court; he would live long enough to see the Supreme Court become a conservative court. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan elevated him to Chief Justice. In October 2004, he announced that he was suffering from thyroid cancer and was receiving radiation and chemotherapy treatments. He died at his home in Arlington, Virginia, with his three children present (his wife died in 1991 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to her husband, William).

Bio by: Kit and Morgan Benson