The Central District of California’s Chief Judge Audrey B. Collins announced the passing of Senior District Judge Robert J. Kelleher, who died Wednesday morning, June 20, 2012. Judge Kelleher, who was 99 at the time of his death, was the oldest-serving federal judge in the nation.
Judge Kelleher was nominated as a United States district judge for the Central District of California by President Richard M. Nixon, and received his commission on December 21, 1970. He assumed senior status on March 5, 1983.
Judge Kelleher received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College in 1935 and his Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1938. After graduating from law school, he began his legal career as a corporate trial attorney in New York City, then served as an associate attorney with the U.S. Department of the Army in Los Angeles from 1941 to 1942. After serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1943 to 1945, Judge Kelleher worked in private practice before returning to public service in 1948, serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California until 1951. He returned to private practice in 1951, and practiced in Beverly Hills until his appointment to the bench in 1970.
A former tennis player and official, Judge Kelleher was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000, and was presented with an official Hall of Fame ring on July 3, 2011. Read more about Judge Kelleher at the District court’s website.