Lorette, Willard (1907-1989)

Biographical Information: Willard Lorette was born on May 17, 1935, in the town of Renville, Minnesota. From a young age, he was motivated by a desire to practice law, and to this end, he attended Gustavus Adolphus College and Columbia Law School. After college, Lorette moved to St. Cloud to work for the Atwood and Fletcher law firm and later was appointed as a probate and juvenile judge in 1966. He continued to serve as a judge within Minnesota for many years thereafter, before retiring in 1995. He passed away on February 26, 2017.

Transcript Summary: In an interview conducted on December 10, 1991, Willard Lorette discussed his career as lawyer and judge within Central Minnesota. Lorette noted that after graduating from college, he spent much of the late 1960s and early 1970s working part-time with both the Atwood and Fletcher law firm in St. Cloud, and as a probate and juvenile judge in Foley. While he enjoyed his work overall, Lorette also expressed his frustrations with new challenges that emerged within the judiciary over the course of his career. For instance, he noted that because of the Nixon Administration’s role in the Watergate scandal in 1972, public faith in state institutions (including judiciaries at all levels of state and national governments) had drastically declined over time. Additionally, Lorette noted that despite steady population growth within Central Minnesota towns like Foley over the course of his career, legal institutions like sheriff’s departments, clerk’s office, and welfare departments had not maintained a proportional rate of growth, leaving many of them understaffed and overworked.

Interview conducted by Kevin Schafer

Please contact University Archives to access transcript. [16075]