Dates

• Existence: 1924 - 2001

Biography

James Milton Burns was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1924. His father worked as a logger, and Burns grew up in lumber camps. His mother died in 1930, and his father remarried to his mother’s sister. After his father died in 1935, Burns was raised by his aunt and other family members. He earned a scholarship to the University of Portland, but in 1943, he left to join the Army before graduating. He served in France during World War II. After the war, he returned to the University of Portland in 1945 and graduated in 1947. He then attended the Loyola Chicago University of Law, where he earned his law degree in 1950. That same year, he and Helen Hogan were married. The new family returned to Portland, where Burns was an attorney in private practice from 1950 to 1952. He then served as district attorney for Harney County, Oregon, from 1953 to 1955. He returned to private practice in Portland from 1956 to 1966 before being appointed to the Multnomah County Circuit Court in 1966. He served on that bench until 1972, when he was nominated by President Richard Nixon to the U.S. District Court of Oregon. He served as chief judge from 1979 to 1984, and took senior status in 1989, after which he lived in Wilsonville, Oregon, until his death in 2001.

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