Editorial
Front Page - Friday, December 11, 2009
Hundreds honor the life and career of Judge R. Thomas Stinnett
David Laprad
No mysterious couple with reality show aspirations crashed the retirement celebration last week of the Honorable Judge R. Thomas Stinnett, but the gathering at the Chattanooga Golf & Country Club was still as memorable as they come. With his wife Libby seated beside him at the head table, the 65-year-old bankruptcy judge grinned like a schoolboy throughout an evening of anecdotes, movie spoofs and fearless vocal performances. From beginning to end, the event was a true celebration of the life and career of an esteemed gentleman who’s made a difference in countless lives.
“We’re here to celebrate not only his years of service on the bench, but also his career as an attorney, his friendship to all of us and our desire that he and Libby have a wonderful retirement,” said Chattanooga attorney Gary Napolitan, chairman of the committee that planned the festivities.
Napolitan then provided a brief history of the life of the judge. Stinnett was appointed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in May 1994. Prior to that, he practiced as an attorney with the law firm of Stone & Hinds in Knoxville, Tenn. Before entering private practice, he clerked on the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Stinnett received a B.S. in business administration from the University of Tennessee in 1968 and his J.D. from UT in 1974.
He’s a member of the Tennessee Bar Foundation, American Bankruptcy Institute, Commercial Law League of America, Chattanooga Bar Association, Knoxville Bar Association and National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Stinnett is also past president of the Chattanooga Civitan Club.
The judge has made presentations on bankruptcy information at seminars for the Mid-South Commercial Law Institute, Tennessee General Sessions Judges’ Conference, Tennessee Defense Lawyers Association, the Chattanooga Bar and the Federal Bar. In addition, he’s addressed numerous high school students and civic organizations on the subject of financial literacy.
Present among the 250 guests were Stinnett’s sons; his brother, Bill; his brother’s wife; and Libby’s sister and brother-in-law. Together with dozens of the judge’s friends, colleagues and staff members, they listened as Napolitan told several stories with a decidedly mythical tone. The first covered Stinnett’s stint with his high school football team, when he presumably kicked the ball and ran downfield to make a tackle during the playing of the National Anthem. Napolitan didn’t spare the judge’s college days, either, when he allegedly got into a scrap with a rival fraternity but escaped arrest by swapping hiding places with a friend.
“All of us have wonderful memories of Tom. We love him and wish him the best,” Napolitan said in closing.
Whether Napolitan’s tales contained more legend than truth was up to guests to decide, but there was no denying the kind words Chief Justice John Cook of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of East Tennessee said about his friend and associate.
“Everyone likes Judge Stinnett because he really does reach out to people and touch them in a special way. Even in his day-to-day work, it’s evident people are what matter to him,” Cook said. “While ever mindful of applying the law when deciding cases, he’s always understood people are the center of every case and every decision he makes has serious consequences for the people involved.”
Cook also said Stinnett was known for going the extra mile. “He wanted every person who came before him to understand the process, to understand his decision and to leave court feeling like they’d had a fair hearing,” he said.
As an example, Cook mentioned a video Stinnett produced in an effort to discourage people from taking on more debt than they could handle. To date, thousands have seen the 10-minute production, titled “Bankruptcy: Don’t Let it Happen to You.” (To view the video, visit www.uscourts.gov and enter its title in the search box at the top of the page.)
The highlight of the evening came next as Cook strapped on an accordion and sang a song he composed titled “Judge Tom.”
“The thing about Tom that I’ll never forget, is when Chuck Berry became Tom Stinnett,” Cook sang about the time the judge did Berry’s famous duck walk while playing a cardboard guitar as part of a musical skit. “Johnny B. Goode was the best by far when Judge Stinnett smashed that paper guitar.”
In conclusion, Cook said he’ll miss Stinnett’s “humor, sensitivity, common sense, companionship, contributions to the court and, most of all, dance moves.”
After that, Chief Justice James Marlar of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona screened a short film he made that ostensibly provides evidence of why the judge plans to leave for Puerto Vallarta, Mexico immediately after retiring.
The movie intercuts snippets from the 1993 film “Tombstone” with footage Marlar shot of Stinnett and three other judges during their visit to Arizona last year to attend the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Guests at the celebration roared with laughter as Marlar, in true Sergio Leone fashion, alternated between extreme close-ups of Stinnett’s eyes and long shots of the judge taking out bad guys with pistol fingers.
“There’s a new sheriff in town,” Stinnett said on camera after the last rogue had fallen. “On to retirement!”
One of the perks of retirement, of course, is the departing gifts, and Stinnett did not leave the celebration empty-handed. Leslie Cory, president of the Chattanooga chapter of the Federal Bar, gave the judge a Kindle electronic book reader on behalf of her organization. Barry Steelman, president of the Chattanooga Bar Association, provided Stinnett with a Flip video recorder. And Judge Marcia Parsons of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Greeneville, Tenn., presented Stinnett with a trophy from the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges that read, “In gratitude for unparalleled judicial service to the district, the circuit and the nation.”
And then it was time for the man of the hour to take the stand.
After thanking everyone for attending, Stinnett praised his wife for her support throughout their 41 years of marriage, saying, “I was nothing before I met Libby. I don’t know what she saw in me in the beginning, but whatever success I’ve had, I owe it to her. I love you.”
Stinnett continued, saying he’ll leave his post hoping he’s fulfilled his oath to follow the law and apply it to each case.
Although the judge decided several major cases during his time on the bench, he said he never thought of one as more important than another. “To me, a big case would be the one I had in Winchester, where I had to approve a lady keeping her home. And she didn’t have enough money to pay for it. When I asked her how she was going to keep it, she said she was going to give up her prescription medicines. I told her and her lawyer to go home and figure out how she was going to pay for both. That was a bigger case to that lady than the Wheland Foundry case” (in which 1,200 people lost their jobs).
After praising Chattanooga’s lawyers for being prepared and making his job easy, Stinnett paused for several seconds and then ended with, “It’s been a fun ride. I thank you for it.”
Stinnett will retire effective Jan. 3, 2010.
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