[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 96 (Thursday, May 21, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S2608]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE RESOLUTION 599--HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF JUDGE LEE ROY 
                                  WEST

  Mr. LANKFORD (for himself and Mr. Inhofe) submitted the following 
resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 599

       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West was born in Clayton, Oklahoma, 
     on November 26, 1929, and died on April 24, 2020, in 
     Muskogee, Oklahoma;
       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West was the youngest of 4 children 
     in a family he called ``too poor to paint and too proud to 
     whitewash'';
       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West graduated from Antlers High 
     School in 1948 and hitchhiked to Norman, Oklahoma, to attend 
     the University of Oklahoma;
       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West received a bachelor of arts 
     degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1952;
       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West graduated from Harvard Law 
     School with a juris doctor in 1956 and later earned a master 
     of laws from Harvard Law School in 1963;
       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West served the United States with 
     the 3rd Marine Division in Japan and the 1st Marine Division 
     in Korea;
       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West practiced law--
       (1) in Ada, Oklahoma, from 1956 to 1961 and from 1963 to 
     1965; and
       (2) in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from 1978 to 1979;
       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West taught law at the University of 
     Oklahoma College of Law from 1961 to 1962 and was a Ford 
     Foundation fellow at Harvard Law School from 1962 to 1963;
       Whereas Governor Henry Bellmon appointed Judge Lee Roy West 
     to serve as a State court judge for the 22nd Judicial 
     District of Oklahoma, where he served from 1965 to 1973;
       Whereas, in 1973, President Richard Nixon appointed Judge 
     Lee Roy West to the Civil Aeronautics Board in Washington, 
     D.C.;
       Whereas, on September 28, 1979, President Jimmy Carter 
     nominated Judge Lee Roy West to serve on the United States 
     District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma;
       Whereas the Senate confirmed the nomination of Judge Lee 
     Roy West on October 31, 1979;
       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West served as chief justice of the 
     United States District Court for the Western District of 
     Oklahoma from 1993 to 1994;
       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West served on the Federal bench in 
     Oklahoma City for nearly 40 years; and
       Whereas Judge Lee Roy West was inducted into--
       (1) the Field Trial Hall of Fame in Grand Junction, 
     Tennessee in 2004; and
       (2) the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2012: Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved, That the Senate honors--
       (1) the life and legacy of Judge Lee Roy West; and
       (2) the commitment of Judge Lee Roy West to his family, the 
     law, Oklahoma, and the United States.

                          ____________________