Richard Alan Enslen

Richard Alan Enslen (May 28, 1931 – February 17, 2015) was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Southern Division. His Courtroom was located in the Federal Building in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Enslen was born in Kalamazoo. He went to Kalamazoo College and then served in the United States Air Force, during the Korean War, 1951–1954, and graduated from Wayne State University Law School with an LL.B. in 1958. In 1985, Enslen received a master's degree in law from University of Virginia School of Law. He worked as an assistant trust officer with First National Bank & Trust Company in Kalamazoo in 1958. He served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Costa Rica, 1965-1968. He served as a municipal court judge in Kalamazoo, 1968–1969, and as judge of a Michigan District Court, 1969-1970. When not in public service, he maintained a private law practice in Kalamazoo.^[1]

In 1970, Enslen was the Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the race for Michigan's 3rd congressional district seat. He lost in the general election to incumbent Republican Garry E. Brown. He returned to private practice in Kalamazoo, 1970-1979.

Enslen was nominated by U.S. President Jimmy Carter on November 30, 1979, to a seat vacated by Noel Peter Fox on the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 20, 1979, and received his commission on December 21, 1979. Enslen served as chief judge of the court, 1995–2001, and assumed senior status on September 1, 2005 but stopped hearing cases in 2009.

Enslen died on February 17, 2015, in Kalamazoo.^[2]

References

• Richard Alan Enslen at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Biography at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
• The Political Graveyard
• United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan Official Website