From left, Judge Bob Moon and Judge Richard HolcombTO HELPTo donate money for work on General Sessions Court judge portraits, contact the law firm of Davis and Hoss at 423-266-0605.Portraits hanging in General Sessions Court• N.B. “Buck” Hargraves Sr., 1958-1963• W.M. “Bill” Sherrill, 1974-1988• B. Tarleton Bowles, 1974-1976• Jesse C. Parks, 1977-1982• Joe F. Goodson, 1943-1958• Riley Graham, 1942-1943• Benjamin L. Cash, 1968-1974• W.T. “Bill” Myers, 1950-1974• Frank Chamlee, 1942-1948• John J. Lively Sr., 1950-1966• W.N. “Buck” Dietzen, 1966-1974• Raulston Schoolfield, 1974-1982• orace H.L. Smith, 1986-1997Source: Portrait plaques, Times Free Press archives
Their unblinking eyes have looked upon courtrooms each day for decades, one for a century. The decisions they rendered had lasting impacts on the lives of thousands.
Judge portraits in the Chattanooga-Hamilton County courts building give a human face to those who pass through the sometimes-sterile system.
Local defense attorneys Lee Davis and Stan Lanzo are seeking a way to memorialize three past judges whose faces are missing from the walls of the courthouse – S. Richard Holcomb, Bob Moon and Russell C. Hinson.
Holcomb and Moon died this year; Moon still was serving as Sessions Court judge at the time of his death. Hinson died in 2009.