Fred Tarbell Field was an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from January 30, 1929 until he became Chief Justice on June 30, 1938, serving in that capacity until his resignation on July 24, 1947. He was appointed by Governor Charles F. Hurley.
Background
He was born in Springfield, Vermont, the older of two children and only son of Frederic Griswold Field and Anna Melanie (Tarbell) Field. His family, for three generations, had participated in state, civic, and Baptist church affairs; his father ran a bank and a general store.
Education
Fred Field went to the local schools and to Vermont Academy in Saxton's River.
After a year in his father's store, he attended Brown University (B. A. , 1900).
Despite some discouragement from a greatly admired uncle, Walbridge A. Field, then chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Field correctly discerned his natural aptitude and entered the Harvard Law School.
He received the LL. B. degree in 1903, cum laude, and then spent seven years (1905 - 1912) in the office of three successive attorneys general of Massachusetts.
Career
An able and diligent young lawyer, he quickly acquired broad experience in governmental law and gained a reputation as a thorough legal craftsman.
The civil work of the attorney general was growing in complexity and importance. State administrative law was in a formative stage. New methods of taxation were being discussed and developed. Field inevitably was involved in this activity.
In 1912 he entered private practice in Boston and soon came to be recognized as an expert in tax matters and in litigation affecting educational, religious, and charitable institutions. (See, e. g. , Trustees of Andover Theological Seminary v. Visitors, 253 Massachussets 256, in which in 1924 he served as master appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court. )
When this task was completed late in 1919, he left government service to become a partner of two law school contemporaries in the Boston firm of Goodwin, Procter, Field, and Hoar.
In 1929 Field, with widespread approval by the bar, was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, thus achieving a long-held ambition to follow in his uncle's footsteps. The appointment, directly from the bar, of the first justice in twenty-four years without prior judicial service brought to the court a relatively young judge (he was then fifty-two) with extensive knowledge in increasingly important legal fields.
Upon the death of Arthur Prentice Rugg in 1938, Field was appointed chief justice by Governor Charles F. Hurley. In that office, with its heavy administrative responsibilities, he served until his resignation in 1947, three years before his death.
His term as chief justice coincided with a period of substantial litigation arising out of the depression of the early 1930's or dealing with novel social legislation.
Some cases required consideration of the impact on state concerns of broadened federal regulation of business, both in peacetime and during World War II.
In all these matters Field wisely led the court in meeting the needs and challenges of the changing social and governmental climate. His opinions, found in fifty-five volumes of Massachusetts court reports, were thorough and carefully reasoned.
Field made his home in Newton, Massachussets, and it was there that he died of a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried.
A devout Baptist layman, Field served as president of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in 1923 and 1924.
Membership
Field was a member of the legal staff in the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
As was said in a memorial presented to the court in 1952, once he "had completed an opinion there was little else that could be said with profit on the point. "
Connections
Field married Gertrude Alice Montague, daughter of a Baptist clergyman, on October 11, 1922. They had one child, Ann Montague.