Judge Grant and the federal bench

1935 – 1998

One servant, three services: Robert Allen Grant's career runs through three of this section's entries, and is gathered here whole. He was born on 31 July 1905 near Bourbon, Indiana, came to South Bend in 1922, and took his bachelor's and law degrees from Notre Dame, in 1928 and 1930. His first public office was the county's: deputy prosecuting attorney of St. Joseph County, 1935–1936 — the prosecutor's desk of the 1930s, at the deputy level the record preserves. His second was the nation's legislature: congressman from South Bend from 1939 to 1949, in the succession above. His third was the bench.

The judgeship: On 21 August 1957 President Eisenhower nominated Grant to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana; his commission issued on 26 August 1957. He was the court's chief judge from 1961 to 1972, took senior status in 1972, and served in that status until his death on 2 March 1998 in Mishawaka — forty years on the federal bench from a South Bend seat, the district court's succession chart carrying his service 1957–1998 whole. On 25 September 1992 the South Bend divisional courthouse was rededicated as the Robert A. Grant Federal Building and United States Courthouse: the only building of the federal government in this record that carries a South Bend servant's name. The Northern District's other judges of his era — Slick, Swygert, Parkinson, Beamer and their successors in the succession chart — sat from other cities of the district and are not this city's to claim; Grant is.

Sources:

1. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress — GRANT, Robert Allen (G000384): born near Bourbon, 31 July 1905; to South Bend 1922; Notre Dame A.B. 1928, J.D. 1930; deputy prosecuting attorney of St. Joseph County 1935–1936; House 1939–1949.
2. Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, and the Northern District of Indiana succession chart — nominated 21 August 1957, commissioned 26 August 1957; chief judge 1961–1972; senior judge 1972 to his death 2 March 1998; the South Bend courthouse rededicated the Robert A. Grant Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, 25 September 1992.