William Horsley Orrick Jr. (October 10, 1915 – August 14, 2003) was a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Education and career

Orrick was born on October 10, 1915, in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, to William Horsley Orrick Sr. He had a brother, Andrew Downey Orrick, acting Chairman of the

United States Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against marke ...

in San Francisco. He attended

The Thacher School The Thacher School is an elite private co-educational boarding school in Ojai, California. Founded in 1889 as a boys' school, it is now the oldest co-educational boarding school in California. Girls were first admitted in 1977. The first co-ed gra ...

and Hotchkiss School.William H. Orrick, Jr.,
A Life in Public Service: California Politics, The Kennedy Administration and the Federal Bench
, an oral history conducted in 1987-1988 by Robert A. Van Nest, Esquire, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1989. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

in 1937, where he was a member of the

Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...

Society. He attended Stanford Graduate School of Business from January to June 1938. He received a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

from the

UC Berkeley School of Law The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (commonly known as Berkeley Law or UC Berkeley School of Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It is one of 1 ...

in 1941. He was in private practice of law in San Francisco from 1941 to 1942. He joined the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

in May 1942 and attended basic training

McClellan Air Force Base McClellan Air Force Base (1935–2001) is a former United States Air Force base located in the North Highlands area of Sacramento County, northeast of Sacramento, California. History For the vast majority of its operational lifetime, McClell ...

, California. After basic training, he was assigned to the

Counterintelligence Corps The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a World War II and early Cold War intelligence agency within the United States Army consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and ...

in San Francisco. He also served in Washington, DC and completed his service in June 1946 as a captain. He was in private practice of law in San Francisco from 1946 to 1961. He was an Assistant United States Attorney General of the Civil Division of the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

from 1961 to 1962. He was Deputy United States Undersecretary of State for Administration at the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

from 1962 to 1963. He was an Assistant United States Attorney General of the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1963 to 1965. He was in private practice of law in San Francisco from 1965 to 1974.

Federal judicial service

On May 31, 1974, Orrick was nominated by President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California vacated by Judge William Thomas Sweigert. Orrick was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on June 21, 1974, and received his commission on July 8, 1974. He was the judge in the Patty Hearst sentencing in 1976. He assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on October 31, 1985, serving in that status until his death.

Personal

Orrick's first wife was Marion Naffziger, daughter of Howard Christian Naffziger. She and Orrick had three children, Mary Louise, Marion, and William Horsley Orrick III. Naffziger died in 1995, and Orrick later married Suzanne Rogers. Orrick died on August 14, 2003, in San Francisco.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Orrick, William Horsley Jr. 1915 births 2003 deaths Lawyers from San Francisco Military personnel from California Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California William Horsley Jr. United States district court judges appointed by Richard Nixon 20th-century American judges United States Assistant Attorneys General for the Antitrust Division United States Assistant Attorneys General for the Civil Division UC Berkeley School of Law alumni Hotchkiss School alumni Yale College alumni United States Army officers The Thacher School alumni Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni