Lay, Donald P., 1926-2007

Donald Pomeroy Lay was born in Princeton, Illinois in 1926. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy, 1945 -- 1946. He received his BA in a combined curriculum in Liberal Arts and Law in 1949 and a J.D. in 1951, both from the University of Iowa. He practiced law in Omaha from 1951 to 1966 at which time he was appointed for life to the United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, by President Johnson. At the age of thirty-nine, he was the second youngest person ever appointed to the Court of Appeals. His appointment was also unusual because the usual route to a position on the Court of Appeals is through a trial court, but that was not the case with Lay. He became chief judge of the Eighth Circuit Court in 1980, a position that he held for twelve years. He retired in 1992.