Theodore Roosevelt Dalton - Judgeship

Judgeship

President Eisenhower nominated Dalton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, which he assumed on July 21, 1959, succeeding John Paul, Jr. Along with his colleagues, Judge Dalton as federal judge presided over litigation that continued into the 1970s to implement the Brown decision in Virginia's public schools. Judge Dalton ordered the desegregation plan for the public schools in Roanoke, Virginia.

Judge Dalton served on the three-judge panel in a case rejecting a constitutional challenge to Virginia's method of distributing state money for education to the various school districts across the state.

Judge Dalton took senior status in 1976. President Gerald Ford nominated Glen M. Williams as Dalton's successor, after Senator William L. Scott derailed the nomination of the President's first choice. As a senior judge, Judge Dalton continued to be a force on the bench for many years, famously making use of his personality, knowledge, and vast sphere of acquaintances to push civil cases to agreed resolutions. Dalton's former law clerks include Glen E. Conrad, who was nominated to the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia by President George W. Bush in 2003.

Judge Dalton died at Radford Community Hospital of complications from pneumonia. He outlived his son, John Dalton, by some three years. His personal papers are held by the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William & Mary.