Byron White | |||||||||
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Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |||||||||
In office April 16, 1962 – June 28, 1993 |
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Nominated by | John F. Kennedy | ||||||||
Preceded by | Charles Whittaker | ||||||||
Succeeded by | Ruth Bader Ginsburg | ||||||||
4th United States Deputy Attorney General | |||||||||
In office January 20, 1961 – April 16, 1962 |
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President | John F. Kennedy | ||||||||
Preceded by | Lawrence Walsh | ||||||||
Succeeded by | Nick Katzenbach | ||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||
Born |
Byron Raymond White June 8, 1917 Fort Collins, Colorado, U.S. |
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Died | April 15, 2002 Denver, Colorado, U.S. |
(aged 84)||||||||
Resting place | Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness | ||||||||
Political party | Democratic | ||||||||
Spouse(s) | Marion Stearns (1946–2002) | ||||||||
Children | 2 (including Nancy) | ||||||||
Education |
University of Colorado, Boulder (BA) Hertford College, Oxford Yale University (LLB) |
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Military service | |||||||||
Allegiance | United States | ||||||||
Service/branch | United States Navy | ||||||||
Rank | Lieutenant Commander | ||||||||
Unit | Intelligence | ||||||||
Battles/wars | World War II • Pacific Theatre |
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Awards | Bronze Star (2) | ||||||||
Football career |
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No. 24 | |||||||||
Position: | Halfback | ||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||
Height: | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||||||||
Weight: | 187 lb (85 kg) | ||||||||
Career information | |||||||||
High school: | Wellington (CO) | ||||||||
College: | Colorado | ||||||||
NFL Draft: | 1938 / Round: 1 / Pick: 4 | ||||||||
Career history | |||||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Rushing yards: | 1,321 |
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Average: | 3.4 |
Rushing touchdowns: | 11 |
Player stats at NFL.com |
Byron Raymond "Whizzer" White (June 8, 1917 – April 15, 2002) won fame both as an American football halfback and as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Born and raised in Colorado, White played in the National Football League for three seasons and practiced law for 15 years before his Supreme Court appointment. White was the Colorado state chair of John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign.
White was appointed to the Supreme Court by Kennedy in 1962. He viewed his own court decisions as based on the facts of each case rather than as representative of a specific legal philosophy. He retired in 1993 and is the twelfth longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history. He died in Denver at the age of 84. He was the first Supreme Court Justice from the state of Colorado.
Born in Fort Collins, Colorado, White was the younger son of Maude Elizabeth (Burger) and Alpha Albert White, neither of whom attended high school. He was raised in the nearby town of Wellington, where he obtained his high school diploma in 1934.
After graduating at the top of his tiny high school class of six, White attended the University of Colorado in Boulder on a scholarship, offered to all Colorado high school valedictorians, as his older brother Sam had done. He joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and served as student body president his senior year. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1938, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford in England; after deferring it for a year to play pro football, he attended Hertford College, Oxford. During this time in England, he became acquainted with Joe and John Kennedy, as their father Joseph Kennedy was the U.S. ambassador in London.