Ralph Tunnicliff Catterall (14 March 1897 – 8 October 1978), judge of the

Virginia State Corporation Commission The State Corporation Commission, or SCC, is a Virginia (USA) regulatory agency whose authority encompasses utilities, insurance, state-chartered financial institutions, securities, retail franchising, and railroads. It is the state's central filin ...

Early life

Catterall was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, the son of English-born historian Ralph C. H. Catterall and lawyer

Helen Tunnicliff Catterall Helen Tunnicliff Catterall (March 3, 1870 – November 10, 1933) was an American lawyer, writer, and historian, based in Chicago. She is best known for her five-volume ''Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro'', published betwe ...

. His maternal grandfather was judge

Damon G. Tunnicliff Damon George Tunnicliff (August 20, 1829 – December 20, 1901) was an American jurist. He briefly served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois, Illinois Supreme Court in 1885. Biography Damon G. Tunnicliff was born in Herkimer Count ...

. He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

he was a second lieutenant in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

Career

After completing law school, Catterall joined a law firm in New York City. In 1924 he moved to

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, where he practiced law at Williams, Mullen & Hazelgrove and taught constitutional law part-time at the T. C. Williams School of Law of the

University of Richmond The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approximately 4,350 undergraduate and graduate students in five schools: the School ...

from 1924 to 1949. On 14 April 1949 the governor appointed Catterall to the State Corporation Commission to fill an unexpired term. Catterall served until 1973 (retiring at age 75) and had an enduring influence on the SCC, especially in regulating banks and public utilities.

Massive Resistance

Although

Massive Resistance Massive resistance was a strategy declared by U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia and his brother-in-law James M. Thomson, who represented Alexandria in the Virginia General Assembly, to get the state's white politicians to pass laws and p ...

did not directly affect the State Corporation Commission, Catterall was friendly to the

Byrd Organization The Byrd machine, or Byrd organization, was a political machine of the Democratic Party led by former Governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd (1887–1966) that dominated Virginia politics for much of the 20th century. From the 1890s until the l ...

which advocated such opposition to the school desegregation rulings in

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregat ...

in 1954 and 1955. He published an article very critical of the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings to desegregate public schools.

Death and legacy

Judge Catterall died in 1978 and was buried in

Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia) Hollywood Cemetery is a large, sprawling cemetery located next to Richmond, Virginia's Oregon Hill neighborhood at 412 South Cherry Street. Characterized by rolling hills and winding paths overlooking the James River, it is the resting place of ...

. In 1995, the State Corporation Commission unveiled his portrait.''Virginia Lawyers Weekly'' April 24, 1995)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Catterall, Ralph T. Virginia lawyers 1897 births 1978 deaths Harvard University alumni University of Richmond faculty 20th-century American lawyers