Long serving Iowa federal judge remembered as “extraordinary person”

A colleague and former law clerk recall U.S. District Senior Judge Donald Eugene O'Brien as an 'extraordinary person” who strived for justice.

O'Brien, 91, who worked out of the U.S. District Courthouse in Sioux City, died Tuesday following a brief illness. He was appointed to the bench by President Jimmy Carter and served 37 years.

U.S. District Senior Judge Mark Bennett said Wednesday O'Brien's chambers as just down the hall from him for nearly 21 years. O'Brien was the second longest serving judge, after Senior Judge Edward McManus, 95, on the Iowa federal bench.

'He was exceptionally compassionate and deeply concerned about the less fortunate in life and folks who had no lobbyists or voice, like prison inmates, the mentally ill, the poor and indigent,” Bennett said. 'He was in every sense their guardian of liberty and justice.”

Bennett recalled one time O'Brien gave him some sage advice: 'When I go home at night I like to be able to look in the mirror and know that I did justice. The hell with getting reversed”

'I tried mightily to follow this advice,” Bennett said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney C.J. Williams, who clerked for O'Brien from 1988-90, said the judge was a great example of the 'Greatest Generation.” He was a war hero who dedicated most of his career to public service.

'He sincerely cared for people that appeared before him and strived to do what was right,” Williams said. 'His example has motivated me to emulate his selflessness as a public servant.”

O'Brien, a former chief judge in the Northern District, continued to work with a reduced caseload after taking senior status and didn't stop until his illness.

O'Brien attended Trinity College in Sioux City but his education was interrupted by World War II when he entered the Army in 1943 and served until 1945. First Lt. O'Brien was a bombardier in a B-17 Flying Fortress and flew many missions over Europe with the Eighth Air Force. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and other air medals.

Following his military time, he transferred to Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and received his law degree in 1948. From 1949 to 1953, he served as a part-time city prosecutor for Sioux City. He then was elected and served as the Woodbury County Attorney from 1955-1958 before becoming a municipal court judge in 1959.

In 1961, he was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District by President John Kennedy and then reappointed in 1965. In 1978, he was appointed to the both the Northern and Southern districts by President Carter and served as chief judge in 1985 for several years.

During his time on the bench, O'Brien presided over a number of important trials.

In one of his cases, Hendrickson v. Griggs, et al., the judge ruled the state of Iowa was in violation of the Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention Act and that juveniles in Iowa were entitled to be held separately from adult inmates. Several juvenile detention

facilities were created across the state where juveniles are now housed.