On the recordMarch 5, 2012
I do thank the gentleman for yielding. S. 1710, this legislation, as has been mentioned by both speakers, will name the Federal courthouse in Anchorage after the late Judge James Martin Fitzgerald. James Fitzgerald served Alaska from 1959 to 2006 on the first Alaska Superior Court bench, on the Alaska Supreme Court, and on the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. Judge Fitzgerald was an honorable man and represents the best of Alaska in its earliest years as a State. As was mentioned, from his service to his country in the South Pacific during World War II to the time he served on the State of Alaska's highest court, Judge Fitzgerald always put his country and State first. From 1959 until his retirement in 2006, he served with distinction as a State and Federal judge unanimously praised for his brilliance, his modest nature, and his sense of justice. In addition to serving as a judge, Judge Fitzgerald was a decorated World War II Marine veteran, a prosecutor, Alaska's first commissioner of public safety, and the initiator of what would become the Alaska State Troopers and the Alaska Village Public Safety Officer Program. I am proud to have helped championed this legislation to designate the United States courthouse in Anchorage as the James M. Fitzgerald United States Courthouse. He was a great man, and this will ensure his life and accomplishments are properly memorialized in my State. Again, I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.
