An Oral History: William H. Erickson

• Publication year: 1997
• Pages: 5

26 Colo.Law. 5 Colorado Lawyer 1997.

1997, December, Pg. 5. An Oral History: William H. Erickson

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Vol.26, No. 11, Pg. 5

The Colorado Lawyer
December 1997
Vol. 26, No. 12 [Page 5]

Features

An Oral History: William H. Erickson
by Richard Downing, Jr

This is the seventh in a series of articles on distinguished Colorado lawyers that will be printed in The Colorado Lawyer based on interviews by members of the Colorado Bar Association Centennial Committee. The project is part of the CBA's 100th anniversary celebration, and it is an effort to capture our history. This interview was conducted by Richard Downing, Jr. An edited transcript of the interview follows

William H. Erickson
Q: Give us a little of your background.

A: My early years were spent at 1226 Detroit Street. I attended Stevens Elementary School, Gove and Morey Junior High Schools, and graduated from East High School in 1942. I then attended the Colorado School of Mines and obtained a degree in petroleum engineering. My years at Mines were interrupted by military service in the Army Air Force. After graduating from law school, I practiced with my father, A. X. Erickson. When he retired, Hayes Hindry, Bob Meyer, and I formed Hindry, Erickson, and Meyer. That firm grew to about thirty lawyers, and I left to form a smaller firm just before I went to the Colorado Supreme Court. I was practicing as William H. Erickson, P.C., and my associates were Jim Morrato, Jay Gueck, Joe Colantuno, John Kreisheimer, Les Volpe, and some young associates.

Q: Your father was a lawyer and yet you went to the Colorado School of Mines. Why?

A: My father thought Mines provided an ideal foundation for the practice of law. He was very active in the mining field. He was one of the group that developed the first potash mine at Carlsbad, New Mexico, that now is known as the International Minerals and Chemical Company. He and Carl Modesitt owned the Ute and Ulay Mine at Lake City, Colorado. I worked at the mine, first as a mucker, and then as a timberman, and finally as a machine man using a jackhammer and a stoper. I also did the assaying for the mine, which produced lead and zinc, as well as small amounts of gold and silver.

Q: Was going to Mines a prelude to law school?

A: Yes, I always planned to go to law school. I spent my first year at Virginia, my second year at Michigan, and was graduated at the University of Virginia Law School in 1950.

Q: You actually worked as a petroleum engineer for a short time, didn't you?

A: Yes, I worked at the Rangely Oil Field as a drilling engineer and progressed faster than I should have in a training program. Engineers were in demand, so I was put in charge of six drilling rigs before I really was qualified. Fortunately, with the help of some good tool pushers who guided me through those first months as a petroleum engineer, I survived.

Q: Did you like it?

A: I thought it was fascinating. I never enjoyed anything more, but it had some hardships. I saw one of my colleagues from Mines who had a pregnant wife and who was setting casing one night and could not leave the well when his wife went into labor. There was no one to take her to the hospital so she drove a pickup truck to Vernal, Utah, by herself. The child was born in the front seat of the pickup truck. I then decided that law school was a very good idea.

Q: Rangely was a pretty wild and woolly place in those days.

A: It was, and still is. Some years after I commenced practicing I was hired to defend an action brought by Rangely against John G. Hendry, who built swimming pools. He built this large swimming pool for the town and, of course, Rangely was known for its bentonite and expanding soil. It pushed the swimming pool out of the ground and made it appear as a huge bathtub sitting by the recreation building. That was a little hard to justify, but we tried the case and had to pay for some of the builder's negligence.

Q: After you got out of law school in 1950, you went to work with your father didn't you?

A: Yes. Dad had been associated with Don Oliver for a number of years. When I started practicing, my father was largely retired, but he had a good practice. He began his practice in Colorado as a partner of George Carlson, who was then the governor of Colorado. My father was an outstanding trial lawyer. He used the initials A. X. because he decided those were good initials for a lawyer. His given name was Arthur, and he didn't care for his middle name, so he adopted X, and it stood him well. He was known as "Old AXE" from time to time. I never learned more from anyone than I did from participating with him in the trial of a number of cases.

Q: Tell me about some of the cases you've tried.

A. When I gained some small reputation as a trial lawyer, I received a call from Judge Alfred A. Arraj. He said, "I have a Lindbergh Act death penalty case and if I have to impose the death penalty I want to make certain the defendant had as good a defense as could be provided. I would appreciate your accepting the...