Vernon Robert Pearson
{{Short description|American judge}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = The Honorable
|name = Vernon Robert Pearson
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|office = Justice of the Washington Supreme Court
|appointer= Governor John Spellman
|term_start = {{Start date|1982}}
|term_end = {{End date|1989}}
|president =
|succeeding =
|predecessor = Floyd Hicks
|successor = Richard P. Guy
|birth_date = {{birth date|1923|09|17}}
|birth_place = Bantry, North Dakota, U.S.
|death_date ={{death date and age|2013|02|04|1923|09|17}}
|death_place =Gig Harbor, Washington, U.S.
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|residence = Tacoma, Washington
|alma_mater = Jamestown College (BA), University of Michigan Law School (LLB)
|occupation = {{hlist|judge}}
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Vernon Robert Pearson (September 17, 1923 – February 4, 2013) was an American jurist.
Biography
Born in Bantry, North Dakota, Pearson served four years in the U.S. Navy prior to graduating from Jamestown College in 1947.{{cite web|title=Alumni Hall of Fame|url=https://www.uj.edu/hall-fame-kiosk-version?cat=alumni|publisher=Jamestown University|accessdate=June 7, 2017}} He received his law degree from University of Michigan Law School in 1950.{{cite book|title=Proceedings of the Board of Regents of University of Michigan|date=1948|publisher=University of Michigan|location=Ann Arbor, MI|page=541|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0gXAQAAMAAJ&dq=Vernon+R.+Pearson&pg=PA541|accessdate=June 7, 2017|quote=First November Meeting, 1949: Fellowship and Scholarship Recipients}}
From 1951 to 1952, he was attorney-advisor for the federal Economic Stabilization Agency in Seattle, working for William J. Steinert, a former justice of the state Supreme Court. Afterwards, Pearson engaged in the private practice of law with Davies, Pearson, Anderson and Pearson in Tacoma. In 1963, Pearson served as president of the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association,{{cite web|title=Past Presidents|url=https://www.tpcba.com/about/tpcba-presidents/|publisher=Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association|accessdate=June 7, 2017}} and was elected a governor of the Washington State Bar Association in 1969, before being appointed to the appellate court.
Pearson was appointed by Governor Daniel J. Evans to the newly created Washington Court of Appeals in 1969. Pearson authored the first Court of Appeals opinion in the initial volume of the appellate reports, State v. Tate, 1 Wn. App. 1 (1969).{{cite web|last1=Fuller|first1=Tim|title='The Most Accurate and Useful Law Books Possible,' Wash. Terr., Wash., Wn.2d, and Wn. App. Milestones of Official Case Reporting in Washington|url=https://www.courts.wa.gov/appellate_trial_courts/supreme/?fa=atc_supreme.milestones|publisher=Washington State Courts|accessdate=June 10, 2017}}
In 1982, Governor John Spellman appointed Pearson as an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court.{{cite book|last1=Sheldon|first1=Charles H.|title=A Century of Judging|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VDH5w0buMTMC&dq=Vernon+R.+Pearson&pg=PA171|publisher=University of Washington Press|location=Seattle, WA|isbn=0295803290|pages=171–172|accessdate=June 7, 2017}} He served as an associate justice from 1982 to 1987, having been named Acting Chief Justice in 1985,"4 new justices make history on high court", Spokane Chronicle (January 14, 1985), p. 3. and then chief justice from 1987 to 1989.
He died in Gig Harbor, Washington.{{cite news|title=Former Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Vernon Robert Pearson dies|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/02/former_washington_supreme_cour.html|accessdate=June 7, 2017|work=Oregonian|agency=Associated Press-Tacoma News Tribune|date=February 14, 2013}}[http://www.templeofjustice.org/justice/vernon-r-pearson/ Washington Supreme Court, Biographical Sketch of Vernon R. Pearson] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120831212319/http://www.templeofjustice.org/justice/vernon-r-pearson/ |date=August 31, 2012 }}
Notes
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Selected publications
- Pearson, Vernon R.; O'Neill, Michael (1986). [http://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sulr/vol9/iss2/1/ "The First Amendment, Commercial Speech, and the Advertising Lawyer"], 9 Seattle U. L. Rev. 293.
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{{succession box
|title=Justice of the Washington Supreme Court
|before=Floyd Hicks
|after=Richard P. Guy
|years=1982–1989}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Vernon Robert}}
Category:People from Tacoma, Washington
Category:People from McHenry County, North Dakota
Category:University of Jamestown alumni
Category:University of Michigan Law School alumni
Category:Justices of the Washington Supreme Court
Category:Chief justices of the Washington Supreme Court
Category:Washington (state) Republicans
Category:20th-century American judges
Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II
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