William E. Doyle

• Publication year: 1998
• Pages: 21
• Citation: Vol. 27 No. 7 Pg. 21

27 Colo.Law. 21 Colorado Lawyer 1998.

1998, July, Pg. 21. William E. Doyle

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21

Vol. 27, No. 7, Pg. 21

The Colorado Lawyer
July 1998
Vol. 27, No. 7 [Page 21]

Five of the Greatest

William E. Doyle
by John L. Kane, Jr., Harry F. Tepker, Jr

In 1968, a bomb exploded at the Denver home of U.S. District Judge William E. Doyle. Some of the judge's friends feared the bomb was the work of a bigot willing to resort to terrorism to block desegregation in Denver. As the judge's friends knew, Doyle was a man of principle who "loved the law as much as anyone."1 If he shared his friends' fears, he never admitted it, and he never hesitated to carry out his duty to uphold the mandate of school desegregation despite controversy and resistance

Childhood Years And Education

William E. Doyle was born in Denver on February 5, 1911. His father, William R. Doyle, worked as a teamster on a delivery cart for the Tivoli Brewing Company. His mother, Sarah Harrington, was the daughter of a laborer.2 At the age of eight, the future jurist sold newspapers. He became an accomplished amateur boxer and was selected to the All-City football team as a tackle for West Denver High School

Doyle worked throughout his high school and college years at the University of Colorado waiting tables, moving freight, and hostling. Following three years of undergraduate study, in 1933 he began his law studies. He put himself through George Washington University Law School by working as a guard in the Senate Office Building from 4 p.m. to midnight.3

While in law school, Doyle met and later married Helen Roberta Sherfey, a fellow law student. After graduating in 1937, Doyle returned to Denver to take the bar examination.

Early Practice and Judgeship

In the years before World War II, Doyle followed the example of many lawyers who practiced law for private clients and for the public as deputy district attorney. During the early war years, he maintained a private practice, until he enlisted in 1943. Doyle served for the duration in the infantry in Africa, Italy, Sicily, France, and Germany, before being commissioned a second lieutenant at the end of the war.

With the return of peace, Doyle resumed his private practice in 1946. He also began to teach tort law at the old Westminster Law School. He continued to teach this course at 8 a.m., five days a week, for the next twenty years.4 At various times throughout his career, he also taught for the University of Denver and the University of Colorado. As well, he started and lectured at the first bar examination refresher course in the nation.5

In 1948, Doyle was appointed to serve as a state court judge for the remaining two months of an unexpired term. He then returned to the practice of law as chief deputy district attorney in Denver, a post he held for three years. Doyle remembered trial practice in Denver in those years as a rough and tumble experience. Cases required aggressive investigation, but the rules of procedure allowed little formal discovery and pretrial conferences.6 While in private practice, Doyle defended two clients against prosecutions by Robert H. McWilliams, a member of the district attorney's office. Doyle and McWilliams, later his colleague on the Court of Appeals, agreed that Doyle won one case when he should have lost and lost the other when he should have won.7

Doyle's involvement in politics was brief, but successful. In 1952, Doyle made one unsuccessful bid for the state supreme court, though he outpolled his party's presidential candidate, Adlai E. Stevenson. In 1956, he managed the successful U.S. Senate campaign of his brother-in-law, John Carroll. Two years later, Doyle was elected to the Colorado Supreme Court with the support of "flocks of volunteers from the ranks of his former students."8 He stayed on the bench of that court until his appointment to the U.S. District Court in 1961.

A trial judge of deep philosophical mien, Judge Doyle was considered very compassionate toward civil litigants and tough on defendants in criminal cases. He was known to extend liability in personal injury cases to new...