Home County: St. Louis
Term of service at the Supreme Court of Missouri: December 1982 - April 1992
Judge Charles Blakey Blackmar was a native of Kansas City, Missouri.[i] He was born April 19, 1922.[ii] After public school, Blackmar attended Princeton University and earned his undergraduate degree in 1942.[iii] In 1946, he entered law school at the University of Michigan and earned his law degree.[iv] While attending law school, Blackmar served as associate editor of the Michigan Law Review and became a member of the Order of the Coif.[v] He graduated in 1948 and joined a Kansas City, Missouri, law firm known as Swanson Midgley as a general practice attorney.[vi]
While Blackmar practiced law, he served as a part-time professional lecturer of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law from 1949 to 1957. In 1966 he accepted a position on the faculty of the Saint Louis University Law School and taught until 1982.[vii] During that time, he served as special assistant attorney general of Missouri from 1969 to 1977[viii] and as a commercial and labor arbitrator throughout the midwest.[ix]
Governor Christopher S. Bond appointed Blackmar to the Supreme Court of Missouri in 1982, and he was retained in 1984. [x] Judge Blackmar became chief justice in July 1989 and served the full two-year term.[xi] He retired from the court in 1992, a few weeks before his mandatory retirement.[xii] Judge Blackmar took senior judge status and was appointed to preside over trials at the circuit court level and to fill in for vacancies on cases that occurred before the Missouri Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Missouri.[xiii] He continued serving until 2006, when he officially retired.[xiv]
Judge Blackmar was a prolific writer during his career, as a member of SCRIBES[xv] and the American Society of Legal Writers.[xvi] He authored or co-authored numerous law books and articles, including co-authoring West’s Federal Practice Guide Manual, and several editions of West’s Federal Jury Practice and Instructions.[xvii] Judge Blackmar received the 1983 Equal Justice Award of Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.[xviii] He also was a member of the American Law Institute and the National Academy of Arbitrators. [xix]
Judge Blackmar died January 20, 2007.[xx]
[i] Roy Blunt, Secretary of State, Steven N. Ahrens, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1991-1992, (Jefferson City, MO, 1991), 168.
[ii]Roy, Blunt, Secretary of State, Steven N. Ahrens. Ed. Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1991-1992, 168.
[iii] Jack Flach and Mary Scarpinato, “Professor at SLU is expected to be named to state high court,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat (1982)
[iv] Terry Ganey, “Professor Here Appointed To Missouri Supreme Court,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1982).
[v] Richard W. Power, “Judge Blackmar: An Appreciation, Judge Charles B. Blackmar, Renaissance Man of the Law,” Saint Louis University Law Journal, (1988), 591.
[vi] “Former Missouri chief justice dies,” Jefferson City News-Tribune (2007).
[vii] Jack Flach and Mary Scarpinato, “Professor at SLU is expected to be named to state high court,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat (1982)
[viii] Bob Watson, “Chief Justice: Charles Blackmar plans to implement new ideas,” The Statesman. (1989), 4.
[ix] “Former Missouri Chief Justice Charles B. Blackmar dies after brief illness,” Supreme Court of Missouri. (2007), https://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=90054&version=meter
[x] Bob Watson, “Chief Justice: Charles Blackmar plans to implement new ideas,” The Statesman. (1989), 4.
[xi] “Cutting down on court delays, goal of judge,” The Joplin Globe (1989).
[xii] The Associated Press, “Retiring Blackmar won’t hang up his robe yet,” Jefferson City Post-Tribune (1992).
[xiii] Marc Powers, “Collective bargaining case brings out former chief justice,” Southeast Missourian (2002).
[xiv] “Former Missouri chief justice dies,” Jefferson City News-Tribune. (2007).
[xv] Roy Blunt, Secretary of State. Steven N. Ahrens, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1991-1992, (Jefferson City, MO, 1991), 168
[xvi] “Former Missouri Chief Justice Charles B. Blackmar dies after brief illness,” Supreme Court of Missouri,(2007), https://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=90054&version=meter
[xvii] “Former Missouri Chief Justice Charles B. Blackmar dies after brief illness,” Supreme Court of Missouri, (2007).,https://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=90054&version=meter
[xviii] “AJS Honors Chief Justice Blackmar, Maurice Graham,” MoBar Bulletin. (1989), 11.
[xix] Roy Blunt, Secretary of State, Steven N. Ahrens, ed., Official Manual, State of Missouri, 1991-1992, (Jefferson City, MO, 1991), 168.
[xx] “Former Missouri chief justice dies,” Jefferson City News-Tribune. (2007).
Biographical information authored by Ms. Hannah Siegel, 2017, Columbia College, Columbia, Missouri.