[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 10, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1162-E1163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   THE CHIEF BANKRUPTCY JUDGE MARTIN V.B. BOSTETTER, JR. COURT HOUSE

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                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 10, 1997

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, it is a great honor to rise today 
in appreciation of Chief Bankruptcy Judge Martin V.B. Bostetter, Jr. 
and to introduce legislation naming the U.S. Courthouse on South 
Washington Street in Alexandria in his honor. Chief Judge Bostetter was 
born on March 11, 1926, in Baltimore, MD, and attended Mount Vernon 
High School in Fairfax County. During World War II, he served in the 
U.S. Navy and then attended the University of Virginia where he 
obtained his bachelor of arts degree in 1950 and his Latin bachelor of 
laws degree in 1952.
  Since 1952, his entire legal career has occurred within an eight 
block radius in Old Town Alexandria. He began the practice of law in 
the city of Alexandria, and in 1953, he was appointed special assistant 
to the city attorney, serving in the capacity of city prosecutor. He 
resigned that position in 1957 to become associate judge of the 
municipal court of the city of Alexandria, where he served for a period 
of 2 years, resigning in 1959.
  Judge Bostetter was appointed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 1959, 
and presently serves as U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District 
of Virginia, having been appointed chief judge on February 1, 1985. He 
ranks among the longest sitting full-time bankruptcy judges in the 
United States.
  In 1959, Judge Bostetter established the First Bankruptcy Court in 
Alexandria, in the former Federal District courthouse--the very 
building he now occupies as chief judge of the Bankruptcy Court for the 
District of Virginia, 38 years later. He has taken special interest and 
great pride in the ongoing renovation of this historic building and 
landmark.
  When Judge Bostetter first sat on the bench in 1959, there were 
approximately nine bankruptcy filings per month and the bankruptcy 
court had only one employee. He remained the only full time bankruptcy 
judge in the Alexandria Division from July 1959 until December 1994. 
During the late 1980's and early 1990's, he handled the caseload of 
approximately 2\1/2\ judges.
  During his service on the bench, Chief Judge Bostetter has seen the 
Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia grow to three 
divisions with 5 full-time judges and staff, 90 employees in its 
clerk's office and averages of more than 2,600 bankruptcy filings per 
month. The Alexandria Division where he now sits has two full-time 
judges, 22 employees and averages approximately 790 bankruptcy filing 
per month.
  Chief Judge Bostetter has been a dedicated and loyal public servant 
serving the people of Virginia faithfully with honor, integrity, and 
distinction during his tenure as a bankruptcy judge. He has fulfilled 
his duties with a strong sense of fairness and pragmatism, while at the 
same time adhering to the constraints imposed by the bankruptcy code 
and related case law. Moreover, he has set very high standards for the 
lawyers who practice before him making those lawyers better prepared 
and more effective advocates for their respective client's interests.
  In addition to his responsibilities as a bankruptcy judge, Chief 
Judge Bostetter has served as a member of the Committee on Court 
Administration of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 
July 1, 1982, until it was dissolved by reorganization of the Judicial 
Conference in 1987. On October 16, 1984, he was elected by the Judicial 
Center, serving in that position until September 1987. He is a former 
member of the Transition Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy to

[[Page E1163]]

the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. 
In 1986, he was appointed by Chief Justice Warren Burger as chairman of 
a committee to expand and improve the educational programs for all 
bankruptcy judges. Justice Rehnquist, upon assuming the position of the 
Chief Justice of the United States, reappointed him to continue as a 
chairman of that committee until his term expired in 1989. In addition, 
he was appointed to the State-Federal Judicial Relations Committee of 
the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1991.
  In addition to his significant public service as a judge, Judge 
Bostetter has a strong record of civic contributions as well. He has 
served as president of the Alexandria Bar Association, president of the 
Alexandria Junior Chamber of Commerce, president and chairman of the 
board of the Alexandria Junior Chamber of Commerce, president and 
chairman of the board of the Alexandria Sertoma Club, president of the 
Alexandria Mental Health Association, and has also served on the boards 
of the Alexandria Hospital Corp., the Alexandria Mental Health Clinic, 
the Alexandria Community Chest, and the Alexandria Boys' Club. In 1959, 
the Alexandria Junior Chamber of Commerce awarded him the Distinguished 
Service Award as the ``Outstanding Young Man of the Year 1959'', and 
the Kiwanis Club of Alexandria designated him as an honorary member. In 
1960, Judge Bostetter was nominated by the Alexandria Junior Chamber of 
Commerce as one of the Ten Outstanding Men of the United States for his 
work on the Juvenile Detention Commission.

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