[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 202 (Thursday, December 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S5849]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                        TRIBUTE TO GARY E. HICKS

 Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I rise today to salute Justice 
Gary E. Hicks for his many years of dedicated service in the New 
Hampshire judicial branch. Justice Hicks recently retired from his role 
as senior associate justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, a 
culmination of a long legal career that also included 23 years as a 
commercial litigator and 5 years as a Superior Court judge. He leaves a 
legacy worthy of our praise and our gratitude.
  Justice Hicks has firm roots in New Hampshire. He was born in West 
Stewartstown and raised in nearby Colebrook, two close-knit communities 
in northern New Hampshire near the U.S.-Canada border. His father ran 
the local hardware store on Main Street in Colebrook, Hicks Hardware. 
Justice Hicks started working in the store at age 12, and he often 
observes that the service-oriented and problem-solving aspects of that 
job proved useful in his later career as a judge. Even when his duties 
as a justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court kept him close to the 
State capital, Justice Hicks still found time to visit family and 
friends in his hometown and mentor students at his alma mater, 
Colebrook Academy.
  He left Colebrook after high school to attend Bucknell University. At 
the encouragement of his wife Patricia, Justice Hicks then enrolled in 
law school and received his J.D. from Boston University School of Law 
in 1978. He worked as a commercial litigator for 23 years at a 
prestigious New Hampshire law firm. In a short time, Justice Hicks 
developed a reputation for his compassion, his kindness, his intellect, 
and his thorough understanding of the law.
  As Governor of New Hampshire, I had the honor of nominating Gary 
Hicks to fill a vacancy on the New Hampshire Superior Court in 2001. He 
brought the same integrity and work ethic to the bench, and he later 
wrote that his experience as a Superior Court judge was both 
fascinating because of the breadth of issues he encountered and 
rewarding because of the many people who obtained justice through the 
legal system. When there was a vacancy on the New Hampshire Supreme 
Court in 2006, Governor John Lynch nominated Gary Hicks for a position 
on New Hampshire's highest court. An elated Justice Hicks referred to 
the appointment as his ``life's ambition.''
  Friends, colleagues and fellow jurists are quick to point to one 
character trait in particular when describing Justice Hicks. He is an 
incredibly thoughtful person who is generous with his time and takes 
great care to use his legal talents to get it right. His thoughtfulness 
emerges not only in the many cases to which he applied an even 
temperament and careful deliberation, but also in his treatment and 
mentorship of law clerks and new attorneys. Many of his former law 
clerks, including my daughter Stacey, remember his patience and 
guidance as they navigated complicated legal questions, and they 
continue to draw on their formative experience with Justice Hicks when 
resolving difficult issues later in their careers. They benefited 
tremendously from his goodwill. In many respects, Justice Hicks is a 
living testament to one of his literary heroes, the dignified, 
reasoned, genuine, and inspiring character of Atticus Finch from ``To 
Kill A Mockingbird.''
  On behalf of the people of New Hampshire, I ask my colleagues and all 
Americans to join me in thanking Justice Gary Hicks for his many years 
of service to New Hampshire and his fellow Granite Staters. In 
retirement, he plans to spend more time with his grandchildren and 
expand his involvement with the advanced studies program at St. Paul's 
School in Concord, NH. We wish him all the best in this new chapter of 
his life.

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