Biography: George Whitfield Jack, Caddo Parish La.
Submitted by: casteel@hiwaay.net (Thomas J. Casteel)



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GEORGE WHITFIELD JACK
Federal Judge

GEORGE WHITFIELD JACK was the son of William Houston and Mary Catherine
Jack, the  former being a native of Wilkes County, Georgia; the latter of
Holly Springs, Mississippi, and both having a long line of splendid
ancestors.

The subject of this sketch received his education at the State Normal
School, Natchitoches, Louisiana, from which he graduated in 1893, after
which he taught four years in the Public Schools of Louisiana. Was
graduated from the Law Department of Tulane University with degree of B. L.
in 1898. He located in Shreveport and began the practice of law. He was a
member of the Board of Administration of State Normal School from 1908 to
1912. City Attorney for the City of Shreveport, Louisiana, 1910 to 1913.
United States Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, 1913 to 1916.
He was appointed United States Judge by President Wilson, March 16, 1917,
which position he was filling at the time of his death.

Judge Jack married Roberta Pegues, daughter of William Pegues, then sheriff
of DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, May 9, 1900. Four children blessed this union,
the eldest, Elizabeth, died at the age of eleven, but three sons,
Whitfield, Jr., Wellborn and Stuart, born respectively, 1906, 1907 and
1909, are living and all in school.

In the memorial presented by the Bar Association, the committee stated that
Judge Jack was a "man who was good in his greatness and great in his
goodness, who deserved to be remembered as a lawyer, a man and as a judge.
**** He stepped from the bar to the bench in one stride. He recognized in
the Federal Judgeship a position of prestige and of power, but carrying
also duties corresponding to its honors and responsibilities commensurate
with its dignity. In his career as United States Judge he was animated by a
passion for justice and righteousness. He vindicated the law without
harshness, and upheld both in his public and private life the great
traditions of the Federal bench. He recognized the law as sacred and the
voice of the nation framed for the general good and for the perpetuation of
our country's institutions. He regarded obedience to law as one of the most
essential tests of good citizenship, and looked upon its enforcement as a
patriotism as well as a sworn duty.

His opinions reflected great study and keen analysis of the issues of fact
and law submitted for his adjudication.

Judge Jack was endowed with remarkable courage and a high degree of
intellectual integrity. He had the natural capacity to see the right thing
to do and the moral courage to do it. He brooked no compromise with wrong.
He was a man of broad liberality of view, possessing a keen sense of humor,
and blessed with that fine spirit of courtesy and kindliness that ever
marks the true gentleman.

He was a ]over of nature, reveling in the majesty of the great outdoors. To
him there was no poem grander than a shrub, a flower or a tree. He was a
master of the practical principles of botany. He made his home a bower of
beauty. The shrubs that surround the Federal Building were planted with his
own hand or under his direct supervision. He was never happier than when he
stood by the side or beneath the shade of his trees.

The editor of the Lake Charles American-Press stated at the time of Judge
Jack's death, March 15, 1924, that "Judge Jack was Federal authority
democratized and their ideal of a "just judge," fearless in the discharge
of his duties as he saw them, and with as gentle, chivalrous and merciful a
spirit as ever forgave the frailties of the weak or sympathized with the
ignorant and the poor.

The people saw in Judge Jack a bulwark for society against the would-be
oppressors, either capital or labor, a real man from among the people, and
a terror to evil doers, particularly violators of the country's probity.

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From Chronicles of Shreveport and Caddo Parish, Maude Hearn O'Pry, 1928,
Page 359

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