[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 19 (Wednesday, February 3, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E123-E124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             IN MEMORY OF JUDGE JOSEPH EDWARD STEVENS, JR.

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. IKE SKELTON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 3, 1999

  Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, it is with deep sadness that I inform the 
House of the death of Judge Joseph Edward Stevens of Kansas City, MO. 
Judge Stevens was an honorable adversary in the courtroom, an 
outstanding jurist, and a warm and thoughtful friend.
  Judge Stevens was born in Kansas City, attended Southwest High 
School, Yale University and Michigan Law School. He served as a 
Lieutenant in the Navy from 1952-1955. Before entering the Navy, he was 
a research assistant to Charles Whitaker. He was an attorney with 
Lombardi, McLean, Slagle and Bernard and then with Lathrop, Koontz, 
Righter, Blackwell, Gordon and Parker from 1956-1981. He was appointed 
by President Reagan in 1981 to the United States District Court for the 
Western District of Missouri and served actively until his death, 
presiding over some of the highest-profile cases in recent Kansas City 
history.
  Judge Stevens taught at the Law Schools of the University of Missouri 
at Columbia and University of Missouri at Kansas City. He served from 
1974 to 1982 as a member of the Board of Governors of the Missouri Bar 
and was president of the Missouri Bar from 1980 to 1981. He was 
appointed by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate on April 6, 
1995 as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Harry S. Truman 
Scholarship Foundation, serving as president from 1997 to the present. 
He was a former member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar 
Association and of the Advisory Board of the Court Appointed Special 
Advocates (CASA).

[[Page E124]]

  Judge Stevens was awarded the Lon O. Hocker Memorial Trial Lawyer in 
1962, and the Spurgeon Smithson Award in 1987 by the Missouri Bar 
Association. He was also awarded the President's Award in 1995 by the 
Missouri Bar President, the Charles E. Whitaker Award in 1996 by the 
Lawyers Association of Kansas City, and the William F. Yates 
Distinguished Service Medallion in 1998 by William Jewell College.
  Judge Stevens was active in the community. He was on the Board of 
Trustees and sang in the choir at the Central United Methodist Church. 
He was a member of the Man-of-the-Month Fraternity from 1996 until the 
present, and of the Missouri Academy of Squires. He was a former member 
of the Board of Directors and later the Board of Governors of Truman 
Medical Center, 1981 to 1998, and a former trustee of the Bartsow 
School. He was on the Board of Directors for the University Club from 
1994 until 1997, and was also a member of the Carriage Club, Beta Theta 
Pi Fraternity, Epsilon Lambda Chapter. He was President of the Vanguard 
Club in 1993 and the Mercury Club in 1995.
  Judge Joseph Edward Stevens will be missed by everyone who had the 
privilege to know him. I know the Members of the House will join me in 
extending heartfelt condolences to his family: his wife, Norma; his two 
daughters, Jennifer and Rebecca, and his sister and brother.

                          ____________________