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Judges Moore and Whitmore retiring from 9th District
TRACEY BLAIR
Legal News Reporter
Published: February 7, 2017
Two pioneers will soon say goodbye to the Ninth District Court of Appeals.
Judge Beth Whitmore retired Feb. 1 after 18 years of service due to age limitations.
Judge Carla Moore is hanging up her robe tomorrow after 12 years on the Akron-based appellate court to explore other options.
Both women were unafraid to break new ground in the legal profession and beyond.
Trailblazers
Judge Whitmore, a 70-year-old Akron resident, was one of the first women to join the U.S. Air Force.
Prior to graduating first in her class from The University of Akron School of Law, Judge Whitmore served as top secret control officer and commander of enlisted women at Goodfellow Airforce Base in San Angelo, Texas. She spent all four years of her military career there.
“We were the first women in the candidates school,” said Judge Whitmore. “A lot of people didn’t want women in the military. When the Vietnam War came along, I thought, `This is silly. They’re drafting only men!’
“I wanted to do my part, and it was the best decision I ever made. To me, it was very important I was able to do something for my country.”
As squadron commander, Judge Whitmore’s job was to help the other women — many of whom came from small towns — with the transition.
She also became a military leader in another important way.
“I was married. My husband worked on base, and I became pregnant,” Judge Whitmore said. “At the time, the rule was that you had to be discharged from the military if you became pregnant. But I convinced my supervisor that it would be quite wasteful to send me home. I became the first person to remain in the military while pregnant.”
Judge Moore, a 64-year-old Akron resident, was perfectly content working at the Akron law firm of Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, L.P.A.
“I loved the Buckingham firm so much,” she said. “One day, one of the top attorneys there took me to lunch and said, `We need to begin grooming you for the bench.’ I never wanted to be judge. I loved being a lawyer.”
But then-Summit County Common Pleas Judge James R. Williams was looking for someone special to represent the local African-American community.
“There were only two African-Americans on the bench,” Judge Moore said. “And one — (Akron Municipal Court) Judge (Harold K.) Stubbs — was dying. When Judge Stubbs left, the governor appointed me to his seat in 1989. That was the first time in the history of Summit County that an African-American woman had served as judge.”
Making a judge
Judge Moore’s father, Robert Moore, was a teacher, counselor and assistant principal for Akron Public Schools. Her mother, Doris, was an X-ray technician assistant. The couple had one other child, Robert Jr., who now lives in Dallas.
From fifth grade on, Judge Moore had taken German. Fluent at the time in the language, she majored in German at The University of Akron.
“I had no idea what to do with a German degree,” she said. “After 10 weeks of student teaching, I learned I did not have the patience to be a middle school teacher. They were throwing spitballs and everything! In college, someone told me law school would be a good option.”
After graduating with honors from Akron, Judge Moore received her juris doctorate degree from The Ohio State University School of Law and was admitted to the bar in 1977.
Before joining Buckingham, she practiced law in the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney General’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio.
Before being elected to the Court of Appeals in 2004, Judge Moore served as judge for 15 years on Akron Municipal Court.
“I really enjoyed both courts for different reasons,” said Judge Moore. “The Municipal Court allowed me to have daily, regular contact with the public. The phone is constantly ringing. At the Court of Appeals, it’s the polar opposite. It’s so quiet you can hear a pin drop. Everyone is busy researching and writing. It seems like the phone never rings. It’s the difference between being in the emergency room and the pathology lab.”
She described being a judge as exhilarating, yet exhausting.
“I’ve spent 27 amazing years as a judge. It’s been a great opportunity for service and to grow. Not just as a lawyer, but as a person. I just came to a point where I questioned when would be the right time to retire,” Judge Moore said. “When I took the bench, my children were 3 and 5. My father passed away in 2015. That got me thinking about priorities and time. Did I want to devote a year of my life campaigning and not spend time with my mother?”
World traveler
Judge Whitmore grew up overseas.
Her father was a chemical engineer who was sent to England to repair the chemical industry that had all been bombed out. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom who went to college.
“We always had interesting people who would come to dinner,” she said.
Born in Akron, her family moved to Chicago and then lived in England from age 6 through high school.
“I had a very fortunate upbringing,” Judge Whitmore said. “It gave me a great perspective on the world. When we studied `The Iliad,’ we went to Greece. We were the only Americans in town, so they called us yanks. But I was always staunchly American. Having grown up abroad made me more patriotic. I came back to America to go to college in Iowa. I was often awed by what I saw in America when we would go back to visit. They didn’t have airplanes then. We traveled by ship.”
Judge Moore has an identical twin named Linda, who now owns a small bookkeeping business.
“I’m three minutes older than she is,” Judge Whitmore said. “We were very premature. We are very different. I was always the independent one.”
She also has another younger sister and younger brother.
After college and then the military, Judge Moore began to think of law as a career.
“The G.I. Bill enabled me to go to law school,” she said.
Judge Whitmore was in private practice for 14 years with the national firm of Arter & Hadden. She was then appointed and later elected as a Summit County Common Pleas Court judge before joining the Ninth District in 1998.
Future callings
Judge Moore said she is considering teaching after retirement.
“I am also heavily involved in the ministry,” she said.
Judge Moore and her dentist husband, Dr. Dan Wilson, do international missions work together.
The couple has two adult children, Michelle, an opthamologist, and Dan, a jazz guitarist.
In a couple months, Judge Moore and her husband plan to return to rural Jamaica for a third time to do missions work.
“We’re working with a team across the country of doctors, nurses and educators who are going into schools to encourage students,” she said. “But you’re getting more than you’re giving.”
Meanwhile, Judge Whitmore hopes to do some mediation once she’s retired.
“I hope to be able to find some way to make use of my talents,” she said, adding, “I’m not a fan of age limitations. You can’t discriminate against people because of their age. It’s unconstitutional.”
Judge Whitmore’s ex-husband is now deceased. She has a daughter, Kathy, and son, Chris. Her eldest grandson is in law school.
“I may relocate to Boston to see family,” she said.
Judge Whitmore keeps busy in her spare time playing golf in the Clearview HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) program in East Canton. The program allows female veterans to connect.
She plans to start a Clearview HOPE chapter in Boston if she moves there.
Looking back on her time on the bench, Judge Whitmore said she has witnessed many sad things.
“But when you get feedback from families about someone turning their life around, that is what keeps you going,” she said.