[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 114 (Friday, August 2, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBUTE TO JUDGE EDWARD HUGGINS JOHNSTONE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ED WHITFIELD

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 2, 2013

  Mr. WHITFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a beloved 
Kentuckian, Judge Edward Huggins Johnstone, who passed away on June 
26th of this year.
  When people speak of ``The Greatest Generation,'' they speak of men 
like Judge Johnstone. During World War II, Judge Johnstone served with 
honor and distinction, seeing combat in the Battle of the Bulge and 
returning with a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for gallantry while an 
infantry sergeant in Europe.
  Following his return, Johnstone married, earned his law degree from 
the University of Kentucky College of Law, and raised four children in 
the small town of Princeton, Kentucky. After 27 years in private 
practice, he was appointed in 1976 as a state Circuit Judge, and 16 
months later was nominated by President Jimmy Carter and confirmed to 
serve as a United States District Judge for the Western District of 
Kentucky.
  Having long been woefully underserved by the federal judiciary, Judge 
Johnstone brought a welcome change to the Western District of Kentucky 
by ending the long-accepted tradition of cases being heard in 
Louisville. Before him, federal judges preferred to live and hear cases 
far away from much of the Western District which stretched from just 
east of Louisville all the way to Tennessee.
  Judge Johnstone's dedication to public service perhaps is best 
exemplified by his landmark efforts to improve living conditions for 
inmates serving time in Kentucky prisons. In his book Voices from a 
Southern Prison, Lloyd Anderson quotes Judge Johnstone describing his 
philosophy, ``Even in the worst of people there is a good side. If we 
treat them with dignity and respect it brings out the good and 
suppresses the bad.''
  As public servants we all strive to make our communities and our 
country a better place. Judge Johnstone certainly demonstrated that 
desire and managed to revitalize the Kentucky prison system along the 
way.
  ``Big Ed'' Johnstone's size 14 shoes will be hard to fill, but with a 
long line of people he has influenced both inside and outside of the 
legal profession, and with the example of a life lived well and with 
the highest integrity to guide many more, I am sure Judge Johnstone 
would agree that the goodness of Man will continue to shine through.

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