Longtime federal judge in West Virginia dies
Associated Press
WHEELING, W.Va.
Longtime West Virginia federal Judge Robert E. Maxwell has died, Northern District of West Virginia Chief Judge John Bailey said Sunday.
Maxwell had been in poor health and died Saturday night, Bailey said.
Maxwell was nominated to the U.S. Court for the Northern District of West Virginia by former President Lyndon Johnson on July 19, 1965, according to his Federal Judicial Service biography.
Maxwell was confirmed by the U.S. Senate Aug. 11, 1965, and served as chief judge from 1965 until 1994. He went to senior status the following year. He was based in Elkins.
“Judge Maxwell was very intelligent. He was a great speaker,” Bailey said. “He knew every employee in that building, what their kids names were. He was very friendly, very outgoing and he was loved down there.”
The court will hold a memorial, but plans have not been finished, Bailey said.
Maxwell was born in 1924 in South Bend, Ind., and got his law degree from West Virginia University College of law in 1949, according to his biography. He went into private practice in Randolph County, then served as prosecuting attorney from 1953 until 1961. Maxwell served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia from 1961 until 1964.
Bailey first practiced in Maxwell’s court in the 1970s. “He was always fair,” Bailey said.
Maxwell’s death was first reported by the Inter- Mountain newspaper.