Charles J. Traylor (1916-2001)
| Publication year | 2014 |
| Pages | 49 |
| Citation | Vol. 43 No. 7 Pg. 49 |
Four of the Greatest
Charles J. Traylor (1916-2001)
By Robert Traylor
About the Author
Robert Traylor is a country lawyer and a member of the Grand Junction law firm of Traylor, Tompkins & Black, P.C. He enjoyed practicing law with Charles Traylor for twenty years— rst@grandjunctionlaw. com.
Charles J. Traylor, like many trial lawyers, often illustrated lessons in the law for his colleagues with anecdotes. One of his favorites was a story about a personal injury trial before a jury in Western Colorado:
Danny [opposing counsel] had been really emphasizing an accident report as the key to his case because it called into question statements made by my witnesses. When we got to closing arguments, Danny was waiving the document around in front of the jury, emphasizing the points he wanted to make about it, and made the statement that "our entire case rests upon this report."
Then he placed the report carefully on the podium in front of the jury. It was warm in the courtroom so the windows were open to let the air circulate. Just then a puff of wind came in the window and the report flew off the podium and landed on the floor. I said, "Well Danny, there goes your case." The jury laughed and I think the spell of Danny's oratory was broken and it helped my case.[1]
The lesson is: Anything can happen in trial, even to the best lawyers. Charles Traylor's life was filled with experiences that he counted as a great education, for life and the law.
From Mississippi to Grand Junction
Charles Traylor, known to many as "Charlie," was born in 1916 and grew up during the Great Depression in Mississippi. He attended grade school and high school in Biloxi, Mississippi. Charlie's father died early, so Charlie lived with his single mother, a practical nurse. His extended family included uncles, aunts, and cousins, who had a hand in raising him. He often spoke with affection of one particular uncle, with whom he lived from time to time during the summers, who taught him how to fish and hunt in the Mississippi woods. He recalled with longing the days he spent on the coast of Biloxi, fishing from a rowboat and hunting for soft-shell crab at night by torchlight.
His seemingly idyllic childhood was punctuated by observations of society in the deep South—a practical education he applied all of his life. The treatment of his African American nanny, whom he loved, had a lasting effect on his views of equality under the law. His own experience as a working class youngster in the South during the early 20th century engendered a belief in success through merit, as opposed to success by way of social standing, inheritance, or genealogy. He was a practical man who understood that, as he stated, "Nobody said life was fair." However, that practical understanding did not deter him from believing that all people should be treated fairly.
Charles Traylor earned a combined BA and LLB degree from the University of Mississippi in 1941. Coming from the working class and without any scholarship, he worked several jobs and engaged in other enterprises to pay his own way as a student at the university. He joined the ROTC; worked in the student cafeteria; picked up and delivered dry cleaning; and sold "punch cards," a game of chance related to lottery. In his senior year, he was elected student body president of the University of Mississippi. This was a paid position.
His election as student body president demonstrated a knack for practical politics. During his first three years at the university, although not a fraternity member, he cultivated acquaintances among fraternity and sorority members, while maintaining a popular following among non-fraternity students. After obtaining commitments of support from non-fraternity members before the election for student body president, he joined a fraternity, successfully combining the fraternity vote with the non-fraternity student vote. His flair for—and love of—politics lasted his entire life.
After graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1941, he entered the U.S. Army, trained in Panama, and served in the infantry in combat in the European theater of war. Entering as a Second Lieutenant, fresh out of ROTC, he was discharged as a Major. Although a recipient of the Bronze Star, he saw no glory in warfare, preferring to speak little of what he had seen and done in WWII.
Before deploying to Europe, Charlie married Helen Kellogg, who attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs. Charlie returned to Colorado after victory in Europe to raise a family and start his career in law. Colorado had no reciprocity with the state of Mississippi, so he studied for the Colorado bar exam by monitoring classes at the University of Denver College of Law. After being admitted to practice law in Colorado in 1946, he and Helen hit the road to look for opportunity and work. They found both in Grand Junction.
Fifty Years in Practice
The law firm of Adams & Heckman hired Charles Traylor as an associate and bookkeeper at the monthly salary of $175. At that time, the population of Grand Junction was 12,000. There were thirty attorneys, none of them female. The first of the Traylors' seven children had already been born, and the new family found lodging in the basement of the Hilltop Liquor Store across the Fifth Street Bridge on Orchard Mesa. While Helen fought rodents and basement insects, Traylor began his long...
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