Curtis Dwight Wilbur

Curtis Dwight Wilbur was a United States circuit judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1929 to 1945. Before his appointment to the federal bench, he had a distinguished career in California's state judiciary, rising to become Chief Justice of California, and served as the 43rd United States Secretary of the Navy under President Calvin Coolidge. Born in Iowa in 1867 and trained at the United States Naval Academy before turning to law, Wilbur's career spanned multiple branches of public service across more than four decades. He was appointed to the Ninth Circuit by President Herbert Hoover, a Republican, and continued to serve the court until assuming senior status in 1945, remaining in that capacity until his death in 1954.

Early life and legal career

Curtis Dwight Wilbur was born on May 10, 1867, in Boonesboro, Iowa, to Dwight Locke Wilbur and Edna M. Lyman. During his childhood, his family relocated to Jamestown in Dakota Territory, an area that would later become part of North Dakota, where he completed his secondary education. In 1884, he received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1888 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Following a practice that was common among Naval Academy graduates of that era, Wilbur resigned his commission shortly after graduation rather than pursuing a career as a naval officer.

After leaving the Navy, Wilbur moved to Riverside, California, where he began preparing for a legal career through the traditional method of reading law. While studying law in the evenings, he supported himself by teaching mathematics during the day. His preparation proved successful, and he was admitted to the California bar in 1890. He then joined the firm of Bruson, Wilson & Lamme and engaged in private practice in Los Angeles for approximately eight years.

During this period, Wilbur became active in Republican political circles in Los Angeles. By 1898, he had risen to serve as president of the Fourth Ward Republican club. That same year, he transitioned from private practice to public service when he was appointed as Los Angeles County Deputy Assistant District Attorney in the office of John C. Donnell. His work in the district attorney's office evidently impressed his superiors, as by 1899 he had been promoted to Chief Deputy under District Attorney James C. Rives.

In September 1902, the Republican Party nominated Wilbur for a judgeship on the Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeking to fill the seat being vacated by Lucien Shaw, who was running for the California Supreme Court. Wilbur won the election and began hearing cases on a temporary basis in November 1902. During his tenure on the Superior Court, which would last until 1917, Wilbur developed a particular interest in matters affecting children and young people. He served as the presiding judge of the juvenile department and became involved in numerous civic organizations dedicated to child welfare and youth development. In 1906, he served as a director of the Bethlehem Benevolent Board. In 1910, he helped found and served as a director of the Juvenile Improvement Association. Two years later, in 1912, he assumed the presidency of the Social Purity League, an organization that provided religious lectures to the public. In 1915, he played a role in organizing the Boy Scouts in Los Angeles and was named permanent chairman of the executive committee. He also served as president of the state Sunday School Association, where he organized evangelical gatherings aimed at young people.

Wilbur's interest in children extended to literary pursuits as well. In 1905, while serving on the Superior Court, he wrote and published a children's book titled "The Bear Family at Home, and How the Circus Came to Visit Them," which became popular with young readers. Additionally, beginning around 1904 and continuing until 1917, he taught at the newly established law school of the University of Southern California, offering one course annually on the subject of extraordinary legal remedies while maintaining his judicial duties.

In 1917, Governor William Stephens appointed Wilbur to the California Supreme Court, where he began serving as an associate justice on January 1, 1918. His service on the state's highest court proved successful, and in September 1922, he defeated William P. Lawlor in the primary election for Chief Justice. Following his victory in the November general election, Wilbur became the 19th Chief Justice of California, assuming that position in January 1923. However, his tenure as Chief Justice was relatively brief, lasting just over a year until March 19, 1924, when he resigned to accept appointment as United States Secretary of the Navy. Governor Friend Richardson subsequently appointed Louis Wescott Myers to succeed him as chief justice.

As Secretary of the Navy, Wilbur was the first appointee to that position by President Calvin Coolidge. He entered the role with a reputation for high intellect and what contemporaries described as unimpeachable integrity, though at least one critic dismissed him as merely a good Sunday school teacher who wanted to make the Navy safe for boys. During his tenure, Wilbur took an active interest in naval operations and frequently accompanied fleet exercises. In July 1925, he traveled with three battleships on a cruise along the Pacific coast, during which the ships stopped in Marin County for an event that brought together approximately 600 midshipmen and more than 100 society women for a picnic on Mount Tamalpais. In August 1928, he again accompanied a fleet to San Francisco as it departed for Pacific training exercises. By the conclusion of his service as Secretary, Wilbur had achieved notable success in enlarging and modernizing the naval fleet and had established a naval air force that would later prove crucial during World War II.

Federal appellate service

Wilbur's path to the federal judiciary began in the final days of the Coolidge administration. On March 1, 1929, during the last hours of his presidency, President Coolidge nominated Wilbur to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. However, this initial nomination expired when the 70th Congress ended that week without the Senate having taken action on the appointment. Following Herbert Hoover's inauguration as president, Wilbur was nominated again on April 18, 1929, this time by President Hoover, a Republican. The nomination was to fill a newly created seat on the Ninth Circuit that had been authorized by statute. The Senate confirmed Wilbur on May 2, 1929, and he received his commission the same day, officially beginning his service on the federal appellate bench.

Wilbur's service on the Ninth Circuit extended over a period of sixteen years in active status. During this time, he took on administrative responsibilities within the federal judiciary beyond his work deciding cases. From 1931 to 1944, he served as a member of the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges, the body that would later be reorganized and renamed as the Judicial Conference of the United States. This conference served as the principal policy-making body for the administration of the federal court system, and Wilbur's lengthy service on it, spanning thirteen years, indicates that he played a significant role in the governance and administration of the federal judiciary during a period that included the Great Depression and much of World War II.

On May 10, 1945, coinciding with his seventy-eighth birthday, Wilbur assumed senior status on the Ninth Circuit. This change in status allowed him to continue serving the court with a reduced caseload while creating a vacancy for the appointment of an active judge. He continued in senior status for more than nine years. His service on the Ninth Circuit terminated on September 8, 1954, when he died in Palo Alto, California, at the age of eighty-seven.

Jurisprudence and legacy

Wilbur's judicial career, spanning from his initial election to the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1902 through his death while in senior status on the Ninth Circuit in 1954, covered more than five decades of American legal history. His progression through the California state court system to its highest position, followed by service in the executive branch and then appointment to the federal appellate judiciary, represented an unusual breadth of experience in American public life.

His time on the federal bench coincided with significant developments in American law and society. Appointed in 1929, just months before the stock market crash that precipitated the Great Depression, Wilbur served through the New Deal era and into the post-World War II period. His thirteen-year tenure on the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges placed him in a position to influence the administration of federal courts during a time when the judiciary faced unprecedented challenges, including dramatically increased caseloads resulting from New Deal legislation and wartime legal matters.

The legacy of Wilbur's public service has been commemorated in multiple ways. The United States Navy named a guided missile destroyer in his honor: the USS Curtis Wilbur, designated DDG-54, recognizing both his service as Secretary of the Navy and his broader contributions to American public life. This naval honor reflects the lasting impact of his work in modernizing and expanding the fleet during the 1920s, particularly his role in establishing naval aviation capabilities that proved essential during World War II.

Wilbur's personal life included two marriages. He married Ella T. Chilson on November 9, 1893, but she died on December 10, 1896. He remarried on January 13, 1898, to Olive Doolittle. The couple lived in an impressive residence completed in 1904 on Frederick Knob in San Francisco. Following his retirement from active service on the Ninth Circuit, Wilbur spent his time with his wife and their three surviving children: Edna, Paul C., and Lyman Dwight. Another son, Dr. Leonard F. Wilbur, had pursued medical missionary work in China and died there in 1940 at the age of thirty-three from typhus fever while serving as superintendent of the American Board Mission Hospital in Taigu. Wilbur's brother, Ray Lyman Wilbur, also achieved prominence in public service, serving as United States Secretary of the Interior.