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Fred Morton Raymond, son of Joseph and Elizabeth S. (McLennan) Raymond, was born March 22, 1876, in the small village of Berlin (now Marne), just outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Berlin was a small community of Germans, Irish, Canadians, and New Englanders, and Raymond said his childhood recollections were of "pioneers who carried bags of grain along Indian trails to distant markets, of ox teams, tallow candles, and bullet moulds." His father owned the local hardware store, where the political arguments and discussions of affairs of state were centered around the old wood stove during the long cold Michigan winter months.1
After attending the public schools of Berlin, Raymond went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he worked his way through the university and received his LL.B. degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1899. He joined the Grand Rapids law firm of Hatch & Wilson after passing Michigan Bar that same year. In 1923, Raymond became a partner in the firm of Jewell, Raymond & Face.2
President Calvin Coolidge appointed Raymond to the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan on May 8, 1925.3 Judge Raymond never set out to become a federal judge. He once described himself as an "astonished and non-political lawyer who neither sought nor strongly desired" to be appointed but because of "the untimely passing of a President of the United States, the daytime doze of a Vice President during a tie vote on confirmation of an Attorney General, and a sudden fatal illness of the leading aspirant" became a federal judge.4
Active in professional and community organizations, Judge Raymond was a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Michigan, and the Grand Rapids Bar Association, served as president, 1923-1924. He served as president of the Berlin Board of Education and was a member of the Rotary Club, the Torch Club, and the Spring Hills County Club. Fraternally he was a member of York Lodge, F & AM 410, DeWitt Clinton Consistory and Saladin Temple of the Shrine. He was a Mason (33 degree).5
On December 30, 1902, Raymond married Mabel H. Kenworthy, of Oskaloosa, Iowa. They were the parents of two children: Elizabeth Estell (Raymond) Kraber and Russell Kenworthy Raymond. Judge Raymond died February 6, 1946, and was interred at Graceland Mausoleum, Grand Rapids, Michigan.6 |
