James Putnam Archibald (1912 - May 28, 2006), was a judge of the

Maine Supreme Judicial Court The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the state of Maine's judicial system. It is composed of seven justices, who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate. From 1820 until 1839, justices served lifetime a ...

. The son of a lawyer, Archibald attended

Bowdoin College Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...

and law school at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

before returning to Houlton in 1937. He worked in his father's firm and in 1941 was elected

Aroostook County Aroostook County ( ; french: Comté d'Aroostook) is a county in the U.S. state of Maine along the Canada–U.S. border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,105. Its county seat is Houlton, with offices in Caribou and Fort Kent. Kn ...

attorney. After military service during World War II he was re-elected to the post. As a special assistant attorney general, he was called to investigate the double murder of a doctor and his wife, and in 1954 led a probe into allegations of payoffs by a Maine wine distributor to the state liquor commission. He was appointed to the Superior Court in 1957 by Governor

Edmund Muskie Edmund Sixtus Muskie (March 28, 1914March 26, 1996) was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 58th United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter, a United States Senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 6 ...

. In 1971, Governor

Kenneth M. Curtis Kenneth Merwin Curtis (born February 8, 1931) is an American attorney, Democratic politician, and diplomat. He was the Maine Secretary of State from 1965-1966, the Governor of Maine from 1966-1974, and the United States Ambassador to Canada fr ...

appointed him to the

in 1971. He became an active retired justice in 1981. Archibald was highly respected and well liked by lawyers and fellow judges. Former Maine Chief Justice

Vincent L. McKusick Vincent Lee McKusick (October 21, 1921 – December 3, 2014) was an American attorney and Chief Justice of Maine. At the time of his death McKusick worked at the firm Pierce Atwood in Portland, Maine, as of Counsel. His most prominent rulings ...

eulogized him as "the grand old man of the supreme judiciary".

External links

Boston Globe article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archibald, James 1912 births 2006 deaths Bowdoin College alumni Boston University School of Law alumni Justices of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court 20th-century American judges People from Houlton, Maine