Jackson, William S. (William Sharpless), 1889-1981

Memorial services will be conducted 10 a.m. Saturday in Shove Memorial Chapel on the College’s campus with the Rev. Kenneth Burton officiating.

Justice Jackson’s father, William Sharpless Jackson Sr., came to the Pikes Peak area in 1871 to help Gen. William Jackson Palmer found the city. The elder Jackson married Helen Hunt, the noted author, and, after her death, married her niece, He was one of the founders of the college in 1888.

Justice Jackson was born in Colorado Springs on March 22, 1889. He graduated in 1906 with the first class at Cutler Academy, then located on the Colorado College campus. He attended Colorado College during 1906-1907 and played on the school’s state championship baseball team in 1906.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in 1911. He did graduate work at Harvard College and graduated cum laude from Denver University Law School in 1915.

He received honorary doctor of laws degrees from Denver University in 1951 and from Colorado College in 1975.

Justice Jackson practiced law in Colorado Springs from 1915-1942, serving as an agent for the U.S. Department of Justice (1915-1919); as U.S. State Department passport control officer for Southern Colorado (1917-1918); and as director of the First National Bank of Colorado Springs (1923-1942).

He was named to the Colorado Supreme Court in January 1942 and became chief justice in 1951. He retired from the bench in 1953.

He served as regional counsel of the Reconstruction Finance Corp. in the seven-state Rocky Mountain area from January 1953 to January 1954.

Among his honors, Justice Jackson received a certificate of appreciation from the city of Colorado Springs for 30 years of service as a trustee on the Public Library Board (1922-1952). He also received a certificate of appreciation from the South Denver Civic Association for his work as associate counsel for the city of Colorado Springs in the Blue River Water Compact.

Justice Jackson was a member of the El Paso County Bar Association, serving as president in 1934, and the Colorado Bar Association, of which he served as president in 1935. He also was a member of the American Bar Association and the American Judicature Society.

He was a trustee of the Webb-Waring Institute for Medical Research, now locate on the campus of the Colorado University School of Medicine. The School originally was named the Colorado Foundation for Research in Tuberculosis and was located at Colorado College. He resigned that post in October 1972.

Justice Jackson was a member of the Colorado Board of Law Examiners (1922-1925); the Colorado Springs School Board (1922-1925; a director of the Denver Legal Aid Society for 10 years; a director of the Colorado Historical Society (1943-1965; and first chairman of the El Paso County Medical Committee.

He was married twice, first to the late Jean Rhea O’Donnel and on Oct. 25, 1946 to Margaret Woodbridge, who survives.

Other survivors include a sister, Helen Jackson of Colorado Springs; a son, William S. Jackson Jr.; and two daughters, Anne Wilhelm and Jean Emery, all of Denver.

Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, July 10, 1981