Harold Hitz Burton

From Philosopedia

Harold Hitz Burton (22 June 1888 - 28 October 1964)

Burton, who was to become Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was born in Jamaica Plain, Boston, the son of a civil engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

From the Official Congressional Biography

BURTON, Harold Hitz, 1888-1964 Years of Service: 1941-1945 Party: Republican

BURTON, Harold Hitz, a Senator from Ohio; born in Jamaica Plain, Mass., June 22, 1888; attended the public schools; was graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in 1909 and from the law department of Harvard University in 1912; was admitted to the bar in 1912 and commenced practice in Cleveland, Ohio; assistant attorney for a power company in Salt Lake City, Utah, 1914-1916 and attorney for a power company in Boise, Idaho, 1916-1917; during the First World War served in the army as lieutenant, and later as captain, in 1917 and 1918; resumed the practice of law in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1919; instructor in Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1923-1925; member of the board of education of East Cleveland in 1928 and 1929; member, State house of representatives 1929; director of law of Cleveland 1929-1932; mayor of Cleveland 1935-1940; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1940 and served from January 3, 1941, until his resignation on September 30, 1945; associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1945 until his retirement October 13, 1958; was a resident of Cleveland, Ohio; died in Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C., October 28, 1964; cremated at Highland Park Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio.

Burton on Religion

In the Unitarian journal, Christian Register, 1945, Burton wrote:

• I believe in advancing Religious Liberalism because I believe that God is at the foundation of life, and the truest possible understanding of God is the best road to peace and progress on earth. I regard religious liberalism as but another name for search for the truth in the field of religion wherever that truth may be found.

• My religious faith rests upon two great Commandments—"Thou shalt love thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The Golden Rule translates these into action. It is our first duty to put that faith to daily practice among ourselves and with all nations.

Biography by Thomas Blair, Harvard College '03

Thomas Blair, writing "Mayor, Senator, and Supreme Court Justice," described Burton's achievements in the Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography, telling how he was a Freemason, the judge at the Brown v. Board of Education case, and had been appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, although Burton was a Republican.

Burton was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1957, retired from the court in 1958, lived to see the Arkansas desegregation case to its close, then served four years in the District of Columbia Circuit Court but until his death in Georgetown University Hospital.