Kenneth R. Harkins

Background

Kenneth R. Harkins was born on September 1, 1921, in Cadiz, Ohio. He came of age during the Great Depression and entered professional life during the mobilization for the Second World War. His later career was centered in Washington, D.C., where he combined government legal service, congressional work, corporate counsel responsibilities, and federal judging.

Education

Harkins studied at Ohio State University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1943 and a Bachelor of Laws from the university's College of Law in 1948. Ohio State, founded in 1870, was a major public research university whose professional schools supplied legal and governmental institutions in the American Midwest.

He later received a Juris Doctor from Ohio State University College of Law in 1967. The J.D. represented the modern professional degree designation that increasingly accompanied American legal education during the twentieth century; his earlier LL.B. remained part of his documented legal training.

Career

Harkins served in the United States Army from 1943 to 1946 and attained the rank of first lieutenant. He served as a forward observer with the 14th Armored Division during the Second World War, including the Battle of the Bulge, and received the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart. The Army's wartime expansion placed officers such as Harkins in military units supporting the Allied campaign in Europe.

After completing his initial legal education, Harkins became an attorney with the United States Housing and Home Finance Agency in 1949. The agency administered federal housing and urban-development programs during the postwar period, when the federal government was addressing housing shortages and metropolitan growth. From 1951 to 1955, he was a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice, whose work focused on enforcing federal competition law.

From 1955 to 1960, Harkins served as co-counsel to the Antitrust Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C. The subcommittee examined competition and business-concentration issues within the legislative process. He then became general counsel of the Stromberg Carlson and Electronics divisions of General Dynamics Corporation from 1960 to 1964, applying his legal expertise within a major American defense and technology company.

Harkins returned to the House Judiciary Committee's Antitrust Subcommittee as chief counsel from 1964 to 1971. In 1971 he began service as a trial judge of the United States Court of Claims, a federal tribunal that adjudicated monetary claims against the United States. On October 1, 1982, he assumed a seat on the United States Claims Court, later renamed the United States Court of Federal Claims, following the statutory reorganization of the federal claims judiciary.

Harkins became a senior judge on November 30, 1986, and continued serving in that capacity until his death. His judicial work included hearing claims against the federal government and matters within the court's congressional-reference jurisdiction. He retired from active trial service in 2000 but remained a senior judge until 2009.

Achievements

• Harkins served as a forward observer with the United States Army's 14th Armored Division during the Battle of the Bulge in the Second World War, contributing to the division's operations in the European theater.

• Harkins developed a career in federal antitrust law that crossed executive-branch enforcement, congressional oversight, and corporate legal practice before his appointment to the federal claims judiciary.

• As a trial judge and later senior judge, Harkins contributed to the adjudication of monetary claims against the United States in the Court of Claims and its successor courts.

Connections

Harkins married Helen Mae Dozer on December 26, 1942, and they remained married for 66 years. They had two children, M. Elaine Harkins and Richard A. Harkins, and three granddaughters were recorded among his survivors.

Wife:

Helen Mae Dozer Harkins

Harkins married her on December 26, 1942, and they remained married for 66 years.

Daughter:

M. Elaine Harkins

She was one of Harkins's two children and was associated with Denver, Colorado.

Son:

Richard A. Harkins

He was one of Harkins's two children and was associated with Vienna, Virginia.

References

• Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, 1789–Present: Kenneth R. Harkins Federal Judicial Center reference documenting Harkins's federal judicial service.
• Kenneth Harkins Obituary Washington Post obituary documenting Harkins's birth in Cadiz, Ohio, education, military service, legal career, judicial service, marriage, children, and death.
  2009