EVENT: E.T. Dunlap Lecture featuring Judge Lee West
DATE: March 21
 Judge Lee R. West |
The Honorable Lee R. West, United States District Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma, will be the keynote speaker at the E.T. Dunlap Medal and Leadership Program at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
Judge West will present his remarks at the E.T. Dunlap Lecture at 11 a.m. on March 21 in the Student Union Ballroom at SOSU.
“We are honored to have Judge Lee West as this year’s guest lecturer in the E.T. Dunlap Lectureship Program,’’ said Southeastern President Dr. Glen D. Johnson. “He has enjoyed a distinguished career in public service, academia, and the judiciary, and we look forward to his insights at the lecture.’’
The lectureship was established in 1989 as a perpetual memorial to Dr. E.T. Dunlap, the long-time chancellor (1961-82) of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education. Dunlap was a 1940 graduate of Southeastern and was also honored by the University as a Distinguished Alumnus in 1973.
The lecture series was created by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education (OSRHE) and is financed by private funds contributed by friends of Dr. Dunlap. The OSRHE designated Southeastern as the host institution for this continuing lectureship.
Judge West was appointed U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma on Nov. 5, 1979, by President Jimmy Carter.
A native of Clayton, Okla., West graduated from Antlers (Okla.) High School in 1948. He received a BA in Government from the University of Oklahoma in 1952.
He served 28 months of active duty with the U.S. Marine Corps (1952-54) with 13 months overseas duty in Japan and Korea, where he earned the rank of captain.
He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Oklahoma College of Law in 1956 and was selected by the faculty as the Outstanding Graduate of his law school class.
Judge West was admitted to the Oklahoma State Bar in 1956 and had a private practice in Ada, Okla., until 1961, when he became a member of the faculty at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where he taught torts, damages, evidence, trial practice and workmen’s compensation.
In 1962-63 he was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Law teaching at Harvard Law School, where he received an LLM degree.
He served as Labor Arbitrator for the National Mediation Board while in private practice in Ada in 1963-65.
West has served as District Judge for the 22nd Judicial District of Oklahoma and as Special Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals. He was graduated from The National College of State Trial Judges in 1966.
President Richard Nixon appointed him to membership on the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1973, and President Carter named him Acting Chairman in 1977.
He was in private practice in Tulsa until his appointment to the Federal Bench.
He served as Chief Judge of the Western District of Oklahoma from 1993 until he took senior status on Nov. 26, 1994. Since that time, he has remained active, hearing cases at both District and Circuit level and serving as a settlement judge in complex and protracted cases throughout the 10th circuit.
Judge West received the Humanitarian of the Year Award for 2000 presented by the National Conference for Community and Justice and the Award for Judicial Excellence from the Oklahoma Bar Association in 2000.
He has been married to Mary Ann Ellis of Antlers for more than 50 years and they have two children, the Honorable Kim West, a United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, and Jennifer West of Tulsa, Okla. They also have one granddaughter, Mary Ellis Passey.
Judge West’s biography, Law and Laughter, The Life of Lee West, co-authored by Bob Burke and the Honorable David L. Russell, was published by the Oklahoma Heritage Association in 2002 as part of its Oklahoma Trackmaker Series. Judge West will hold a book signing on March 21 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in the Magnolia Room of the Student Union.
Contact: Alan Burton, SEOSU director of public information, 580.745.2731