Theodore Roosevelt Dalton

Theodore Roosevelt Dalton
Judge of United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia
In office
August 13, 1959 – October 12, 1976
Nominated by Dwight Eisenhower
Preceded by John Paul, Jr.
Succeeded by Glen M. Williams
Member of the Virginia Senate
from the 21st district
In office
January 12, 1944 – July 21, 1959
Preceded by Harvey B. Apperson
Succeeded by James C. Turk
Personal details
Born Theodore Roosevelt Dalton
June 3, 1901
Carroll, Virginia, U.S.
Died October 30, 1989 (aged 88)
Radford, Virginia, U.S.
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Mary Lou Turner
Alma mater College of William & Mary

Theodore Roosevelt Dalton (June 3, 1901 – October 30, 1989) was an American lawyer, judge and politician known as "Ted" and as Virginia's "Mr. Republican".

Family

Ted Dalton was born in Carroll County, Virginia to parents Currell Dalton (November 4, 1866 – November 29, 1919) and Loduska Vernon Martin (December 10, 1869 – 1920). His wife, Mary Turner, died September 1988. Dalton's grandmother Clarissa Goad Dalton (August 18, 1841 – February 28, 1907) was related to Dexter Goad (November 5, 1867 – July 1, 1939), the Republican clerk of court in Carroll County at the time of the courthouse shootings following the conviction of Floyd Allen in March 1912.

Dalton's nephew, John Nichols Dalton, whom he had adopted as his son, was elected as a Republican as Governor of Virginia in 1977.

Education

Dalton pursued both his undergraduate and law studies at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, receiving an A.B. in 1924 and an LL.B. in 1926.

In 1968, Judge Dalton was selected as an honorary member of the Order of the Coif of the law school of Washington and Lee University.[1] Judge Dalton also received an honorary doctorate of laws degree from the College of William & Mary in 1972.[2]

A collection of Dalton's papers is housed at William & Mary's Earl Gregg Swem Library.

Political career

Dalton practiced law for over 33 years in Radford, Virginia, beginning in 1926. His law partners included Richard Poff, and in later years both Poff and Dalton were mentioned as potential nominees to the Supreme Court of the United States. Dalton also worked with James C. Turk, who like Dalton later became a federal judge.

In addition to his private practice, Dalton was elected as Commonwealth's Attorney, serving from 1928 to 1936. Dalton won his first Senate election as a write-in candidate in 1944, and became the leading Republican in Virginia during his 15 years a member of the Senate of Virginia. Senator Dalton ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia in 1953 and 1957, in opposition to the fading but still dominant Democratic Byrd Organization led by Harry F. Byrd. Both times Dalton advocated abolishment of the poll tax.

Dalton's first campaign was the high point of what appeared to be a new era for the Republican Party in Virginia. In the federal elections of 1952, three Virginia Republicans including Dalton's old law partner Poff were elected to Congress, and Dwight D. Eisenhower carried Virginia in the presidential election. In 1953, against Democrat Thomas Bahnson Stanley and Independent Howard Carwile, Dalton garnered 45% of the vote. His running mates in that election were Staunton lawyer Stephen Timberlake as the candidate for lieutenant governor and Norfolk lawyer Walter E. Hoffman for Attorney General. The decisive issue in the campaign was public finance for transportation, as Senator Byrd took back his promise to his friend Dalton not to intervene, after Dalton proposed road bonds at odds with Byrd's doctrine of "pay as you go."[3]

In 1957, when the singular issue was school desegregation, Dalton managed just 36.5% of the vote against Democrat J. Lindsay Almond, Jr.. The Supreme Court issued its Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, to which the Byrd Democrats responded with their strategy of "Massive Resistance." In his public statements, Dalton was critical of the Brown decision, but proposed a pupil placement plan that would allow most schools to remain segregated "for maybe a hundred years."[4] The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and efforts by the federal government to enforce desegregation in Little Rock Central High School were used against Republicans and led to the widened margin of defeat for Dalton in his second statewide campaign. Dalton wrote to President Eisenhower, urging the withdrawal of the troops from Little Rock, Arkansas.[5]

When Senator Byrd announced his retirement plans in 1958, Senator Dalton cast the only vote in the General Assembly against a resolution urging Byrd to run again.[3]

Along with Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Oliver Hill, former governors Albertis Harrison and Colgate Darden, Dalton was chosen by Governor Mills E. Godwin, Jr. to serve on the Virginia Commission for Constitutional Revision, the efforts of which led to the Virginia Constitution of 1971.[6]

Judgeship

President Eisenhower nominated Dalton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, which he assumed on July 21, 1959, succeeding John Paul, Jr. Along with his colleagues, Judge Dalton as federal judge presided over litigation that continued into the 1970s to implement the Brown decision in Virginia's public schools. Judge Dalton ordered the desegregation plan for the public schools in Roanoke, Virginia.[7]

Judge Dalton served on the three-judge panel in a case rejecting a constitutional challenge to Virginia's method of distributing state money for education to the various school districts across the state.[8]

Judge Dalton took senior status in 1976. President Gerald Ford nominated Glen M. Williams as Dalton's successor, after Senator William L. Scott derailed the nomination of the President's first choice.[9] As a senior judge, Judge Dalton continued to be a force on the bench for many years, famously making use of his personality, knowledge, and vast sphere of acquaintances to push civil cases to agreed resolutions. Dalton's former law clerks include Glen E. Conrad, who was nominated to the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia by President George W. Bush in 2003.

Judge Dalton died at Radford Community Hospital of complications from pneumonia. He outlived his son, John Dalton, by some three years. His personal papers are held by the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William & Mary.[10]

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Honorary members, Order of the Coif". Washington & Lee University. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
  2. ↑ "Honorary degree recipients - Special Collections Research Center Wiki". The College of William & Mary, Swem Library. Retrieved January 26, 2008.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Atkinson, Frank (2006). The Dynamic Dominion: Realignment and the Rise of Two-Party Competition in Virginia, 1945-1980. Rowman & Littlefield (accessed via Google Books). ISBN 0-7425-5209-8.
  4. ↑ "Time Magazine, Monday, Oct. 21, 1957". Time. October 21, 1957. Retrieved January 26, 2008.
  5. ↑ "Eisenhower Presidential Papers, Doc#379 to Ted Dalton". Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission. Retrieved January 26, 2008.
  6. ↑ "Virginia's Constitutional Experience Touches the World". University of Virginia. Retrieved January 27, 2008.
  7. ↑ Green v. School Bd. of City of Roanoke, 330 F. Supp. 674 (W.D. Va. 1971).
  8. ↑ Burruss v. Wilkerson, 310 F. Supp. 572 (W.D. Va. 1969).
  9. ↑ Goldman, Sheldon (1997). Picking Federal Judges: Lower Court Selection from Roosevelt through Reagan. Yale University Press (accessed via Google Books). ISBN 0-300-08073-5.
  10. ↑ "Theodore Roosevelt Dalton Papers". Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary. Retrieved 1 February 2011.

External links