Wilkey was born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and raised in Madisonville, Kentucky. He received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Harvard University in 1940, and served in the United States Army during World War II in George S. Patton's Third Army from 1941 to 1945 (he left active duty as a Major and served in the United States Army Reserve until 1953, when he left as a Lieutenant Colonel). After the war he enrolled in law school and received a Bachelor of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1948.{{FJC Bio|2581|nid=1389766|name=Malcolm Richard Wilkey}}

Career

=Early career=

File:Malcolm-R-Wilkey.jpg

File:Reagan Contact Sheet C35005 (cropped).jpg Ronald Reagan in 1986]]

Wilkey was in private practice in Houston, Texas, from 1948 to 1954, also teaching at the University of Houston Law Center from 1949 to 1954. Wilkey entered public service in Texas as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas (1954–1958). In 1958 he moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as the United States Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Counsel at the United States Department of Justice (1958–1959), and Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division (1959–1961). He returned to private practice in Texas (1961–1963), before moving on to become the General counsel and secretary of Kennecott Copper Corporation (1963–1970), during which he was also a member of the Advisory Panel on International Law for the legal adviser at the United States Department of State (1969–1973).

=Federal judicial service=

Wilkey was nominated by President Richard Nixon on February 16, 1970, for the seat vacated by Judge Warren E. Burger on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 24, 1970, and received his commission the following day. He assumed senior status on December 6, 1984, and his judicial service ended November 8, 1985, when he retired and went to Cambridge University as a visiting fellow of Wolfson College.

=Political appointments=

In 1989 he was chairman of the President's Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform and worked alongside his Vice Chairman Griffin Bell, who was the United States Attorney General under President Jimmy Carter.{{cite book

|first=Robert North |last=Roberts |author2=Marion T. Doss Jr |title=From Watergate to Whitewater: The Public Integrity War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AVHOaWy-YFYC |accessdate=2009-09-08 |date= September 1997 |publisher=Praeger |location=Westport, CT |isbn=0-275-95597-4 |pages=133, 142–143 }}

President Ronald Reagan appointed him United States Ambassador to Uruguay in 1985, and President George H. W. Bush continued him in that post{{cite web

|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=17004

|title=George Bush: Continuation of Malcolm Richard Wilkey as Ambassador to Uruguay |accessdate=2009-09-08

|date=May 5, 1989 }}

John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database)

until his retirement in 1990.{{cite web

|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=18596

|title=George Bush: Nomination of Richard C. Brown To Be United States Ambassador to Uruguay

|accessdate=2009-09-08

|date=June 13, 1990 }}

John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database)

In 1992 United States Attorney General William Barr appointed him to determine whether federal criminal violations had taken place in the House banking scandal.

Personal life

Wilkey married Chilean-born Emma A. Secul Depolo in 1959. He and his wife moved to Santiago, Chile, in 1990. Wilkey died from complications of prostate cancer at his home in Santiago on August 15, 2009.

{{cite news

|title=Malcolm R. Wilkey, 90 - Judge Steered House Check Scandal Probe

|first=Matt |last=Schudel

|accessdate=2009-09-08 |date= September 7, 2009

|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/06/AR2009090602327.html

|newspaper=Washington Post

}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/us/19wilkey.html |title=Malcolm Wilkey, 90, Noted Judge, Dies |work=The New York Times |first=Douglas |last=Martin |date=September 18, 2009 |page=A16}}

References

Writings

{{cite book

|last=Wilkey |first=Malcolm Richard |author-link=Malcolm Richard Wilkey

|title=As the twig is bent, or, Did I see the best of America

|year=2003 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Xlibris |isbn=1-4134-1139-8

}}

{{cite book |last=Wilkey |first=Malcolm Richard |author-link=Malcolm Richard Wilkey |editor=Roger Clegg |title=Is it time for a second Constitutional Convention? |url=https://archive.org/details/isittim_wil_1995_00_1226 |edition=Paperback |year=1995 |publisher=National Legal Center for the Public Interest |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-937299-40-5 |url-access=registration }}
{{cite book

|last=Wilkey |first=Malcolm Richard |author-link=Malcolm Richard Wilkey

|others=Orrin G. Hatch (introduction)

|title=Enforcing the Fourth Amendment by alternatives to the exclusionary rule

|year=1982 |publisher=National Legal Center for the Public Interest |location=Washington, D.C.

}}

External links

{{FJC Bio|2581|nid=1389766|name=Malcolm Richard Wilkey}}
{{cite web |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/wilkey-malcolm-richard |accessdate=2009-09-08 |title=Office of the Historian - Department History - People - Malcolm Richard Wilkey |website=history.state.gov |publisher=U.S. Department of State}}
{{C-SPAN|6683}}

{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit}}|years=1970–1984}}

{{s-ttl|title=United States Ambassador to Uruguay|years=1985–1990}}

Category:1918 births

Category:2009 deaths

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Uruguay

Category:American expatriates in Chile

Category:Eisenhower administration personnel

Category:Fellows of Wolfson College, Cambridge

Category:Harvard Law School alumni

Category:Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

Category:People from Madisonville, Kentucky

Category:People from Murfreesboro, Tennessee