Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Campbell, William Joseph

When he was named to the federal bench at age thirty-five in 1940, William J. Campbell was the youngest judge ever appointed; at the time of his death, he was the longest-tenured federal judge in the United States, with almost fifty years of service to his credit.

William Joseph Campbell was born in Chicago on March 19, 1905. The son of a Scottish wool merchant, he grew up in a middle-class neighborhood on the city's west side. There, he attended St. Rita High School and St. Rita College. After graduation, he worked as an insurance claims adjuster while enrolled in a night program at Chicago's Loyola University law school. Campbell earned his doctor of JURISPRUDENCE degree in 1926 and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1927. He returned to Loyola in 1928 to complete a master of laws degree.

Shortly after passing the bar in 1927, Campbell partnered...