Indiana Supreme Court
Justice Biographies
 
Justice Curtis Grover Shake

Justice Curtis Grover Shake
(Seventy-second Justice)

Justice Shake was born July 14, 1887, in Harrison Township, Knox County, Indiana, and died September 11, 1978.

He graduated from Vincennes University in 1906, and received an LL.B. from Indiana University in 1910.480 He was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1909 and practiced law primarily in Vincennes. He served in a variety of public positions, including terms as Knox County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Bicknell City Attorney, U.S. Commissioner, Knox County Attorney,481 National Railroad Adjustment Board Referee, a member of a Presidential Emergency Board for Settlement of Railroad Strikes,482 and, most prominently, as presiding judge for the U.S. Military Tribunal to try I.G. Farben Industries officials in Nuremberg, Germany.483 For this national recognition, he was elected to the Indiana Academy, an organization honoring people with a Hoosier background who have won national recognition for themselves or the state.484 He was an Indiana State Senator from 1928 to 1946. He was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court in December 1938 to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Justice Treanor.485 He was chief justice three times (1937, 1941 and 1946) and sat on the court until 1946.486 His publications include: A History of Vincennes University (1928), The Old Cathedral and Its Environs (1934) and A Naval History of Vincennes (1936).487

480. Shake Named to Serve on Indiana Court, INDIANAPOLIS TIMES, Dec. 23, 1937, at 1,
reprinted in 18 INDIANA BIOGRAPHY SERIES, supra note 2, at 53-54; Curtis G. Shake was Judge
at Nuremberg, INDIANAPOLIS NEWS, Sept. 12, 1978, at 29, reprinted in 88 INDIANA BIOGRAPHY
SERIES, supra note 2, at 13.
481. Shake Named to Serve on Indiana Court, INDIANAPOLIS TIMES, Dec. 23, 1937, at 1,
reprinted in 18 INDIANA BIOGRAPHY SERIES, supra note 2, at 53-54; Curtis G. Shake was Judge
at Nuremberg, INDIANAPOLIS NEWS, Sept. 12, 1978, at 29, reprinted in 88 INDIANA BIOGRAPHY
SERIES, supra note 2, at 13.
482. See Curtis G. Shake was Judge at Nuremberg, INDIANAPOLIS NEWS, Sept. 12, 1978, at
29, reprinted in 88 INDIANA BIOGRAPHY SERIES, supra note 2, at 13.
483. Id.
484. Id.
485. Shake Named to Serve on Indiana Court, INDIANAPOLIS TIMES, Dec. 23, 1937, at 1,
reprinted in 18 INDIANA BIOGRAPHY SERIES, supra note 2, at 53-54.
486. 2 BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY, supra note 255, at 377.
487. Id.

Source: Browning, Minde C., Richard Humphrey, and Bruce Kleinschmidt. "Biographical Sketches of Indiana Supreme Court Justices." Indiana Law Review: Vol. 30, No. 1, 1997. View this source in PDF format.
 
Last modified on Thursday, June, 28, 2007
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