Colleagues of U.S. Circuit Judge Ted Milburn, whose death was announced Friday, remember his distinguished service to the rule of law and their own memories of a friend who rightfully earned the respect and admiration of others through his work.
“He was a good man,” said Max Bahner, a practicing lawyer in Chattanooga. “He had a distinguished career as a jurist and he and his wife have both been good friends.”
Milburn, a longtime-Chattanoogan, began practicing law in the city in 1959, quickly becoming a partner at a firm that became Bishop, Thomas, Leitner, Mann and Milburn. In 1973, Gov. Winfield Dunn appointed him a Circuit Court judge in Hamilton County, and he was reelected with no opposition twice.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan appointed Milburn as a judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee, sitting in Chattanooga. The following year, Reagan named him to a newly-created seat as a judge of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He served in that role until 1996, when he took senior status.
Friends and colleagues said Milburn was unfailingly recognized as an upstanding vanguard of justice in the regional and national legal community.