Franklin S. Billings, Jr.

Franklin Swift Billings Jr. (June 5, 1922 – March 9, 2014) was an American politician and judge from the state of Vermont. Billings served as Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, chief justice of the Vermont Supreme Court and chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont.

Franklin S. "Bill" Billings was born in on June 5, 1922, the son of Governor Franklin S. Billings. He was raised in Woodstock and Milton, Massachusetts, graduated from Milton Academy, and received a B.S. from Harvard College in 1943.

Billings completed the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Harvard and received his commission as a Second Lieutenant. He was slated for training at Fort Sill when an Army physical uncovered a heart condition that disqualified him from military service. He then moved to Schenectady, New York to work on a General Electric radar project for the United States Navy.

Billings then joined the American Field Service as a volunteer ambulance driver. He served with the British Eighth Army and the 6th Armoured Division, and earned the British Empire Medal. He was wounded at the Battle of Monte Cassino in Southern Italy in May 1944, requiring five months of recovery and recuperation at a United States Army hospital in Italy, then four months stateside. In 2010 he was awarded the Purple Heart.