Smith, Talbot

Talbot Smith was born October 11, 1899 in Fayette, Missouri. His father, an Episcopal minister, moved the family a great deal throughout the midwestern and western areas of the United States during Talbot's younger years, and hence he attended a number of grammar and high schools before graduating in Wyoming in 1917. He entered the United States Naval Academy the same year, and while at Annapolis he received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering in 1920. He married Lola Hamlen the following year. While still in the Navy Smith also attended the University of Michigan and earned a Master of Science degree in chemical engineering in 1927.

Smith retired from active duty in the Navy on January 1, 1931 as a lieutenant, senior grade. He then went to work as an engineer for Atlantic Refining Company in Philadelphia, where he served as a trouble-shooter for customers' problems with the company's fuel oil and equipment. This type of work did not appeal to him, however, and so he worked at Atlantic Refining long enough only to save money to enable him to enter into the profession which really appealed to him - law. He applied at several different law schools and was rejected; one of these, the University of California, fifteen years later accepted Smith as a faculty member in its law school. Many of the law school deans were convinced that the combination of Smith's age -- thirty-two at the time of his application - along with his "military mind" would prove a barrier too formidable to be overcome in the pursuit of a law degree. Nevertheless, Smith persisted and was accepted at the University of Michigan for the fall semester in 1931. "The Admiral," as he was known by his classmates, both in deference to his age as well as his naval background, graduated with a J.D. degree in February, 1934. Immediately afterwards Smith joined the Detroit law firm of Monaghan, Crowley, Reilley and Kellog. This firm specialized in corporate law, and after several years Smith was given a small percentage of the firm's profits in addition to his regular salary, though he never became a partner in this firm.

In the fall of 1937 Smith went to the University of Missouri, where he taught courses in corporations and contracts. He remained on the faculty there until 1941, when he left to take a position with the U.S. Office of Price Administration. He worked with others in helping to draft the Price Control Act, and later served as chief of both the Appellate and Briefing Section and the Civil Litigation Section. In these positions Smith spent much time in court trying to establish the constitutionality of the federal government's price and rent control policies. Once this was done Smith became a regional O.P.A. attorney in Texas. His jurisdiction there was quite large, covering the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri, and Kansas.

Smith returned to Ann Arbor in 1944 where he joined the law firm of Burke and Burke, later to be Burke, Burke and Smith. There he handled mostly general practice, though he did do much counseling with the Regents of the University of Michigan. In 1945 Smith accepted an offer from the University of California at Berkley to again teach corporate law and contracts courses. Financial compensation, however, was much less in university teaching than in private practice, and so Smith resigned after one year, 1946-1947, and returned again to his private practice in Ann Arbor.

While in private practice Smith became involved in Michigan State government and Democratic politics. He served as a member of the Michigan Anti-subversive Legislative Study Commission in 1951, the Board of Inquiry into the Southern Michigan Prison Riot in Jackson in 1952 and also on the Michigan Corrections Committee.

In 1953, Smith ran for office as a Michigan Supreme Court Justice but lost by a large margin. He remained active in Michigan Democratic Party politics following this defeat, and was appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court by Governor G. Mennen Williams in 1955, succeeding George E. Bushnell. He successfully ran for election in November 195 for the term ending in December 1957, and then was reelected for a full eight-year term.

While a member of the Michigan Supreme Court, Talbot Smith gained both a nickname and a reputation as "the great dissenter." During his first sixteen months as a member of the court he wrote fifteen dissenting opinions. Smith's dissenting opinions won him great praise from many, especially from the Dean of Harvard Law School Roscoe Pound. His successful 1957 reelection campaign was built largely upon his reputation as a dissenter.

Macmillan Publishing Company approached Smith while he was a member of the Michigan Supreme Court and asked him to consider authorship of a book on the legal profession in a series on career choices for college graduates. Smith initially declined the offer to prepare the monograph on law, but later accepted. His book, Lawyer , was published in March 1961.

In October 1961 Smith was appointed by President Kennedy to be a Justice for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The appointment was confirmed, and he assumed his duties as a federal district judge in 1962. Smith served in this capacity for ten years before assuming senior status in October 1971. After this he continued to sit by designation on various Courts of Appeals, particularly in St. Louis. And though he reduced his case load a great deal by this time, Smith continued to write opinions with some frequency. Talbot Smith passed away in December 1978 at the age of 79.

From the guide to the Talbot Smith papers, 1918-1978, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)