Erickstad, Ralph J.

Ralph J. Erickstad was born in 1922 in Starkweather, N.D., where he lived and was educated until he left to attend the University of North Dakota. He served as a radio operator and gunner in the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force in World War II, and returned after the war to attend law school at the University of Minnesota. Before being elected to the North Dakota Supreme Court in 1962, he held a variety of positions related to the law in North Dakota, including practicing lawyer, police magistrate, state's attorney, state senator, and assistant majority floor leader in the North Dakota legislature. He was elected Chief Justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court in 1972 and 1982, where he served until his retirement in 1992. Erickstad was involved in many legal associations, as well as community service organizations, including the Boy Scouts, and Missouri Valley YMCA. Ralph J. Erickstad died in 2001.

From the description of Papers, 1950-1999. (State Historical Society of North Dakota State Archives). WorldCat record id: 55472053