Speaker for Feb. 3
Judge Maurice Hilliard shares "THE LIST"
Judge
Maurice Hilliard will share his program "The List" with us this week.
Before he
retired, Maurice Hilliard was a Roswell municipal court judge for 32 years with
a reputation for being hard on DUI offenders and empathic to youthful
offenders. He continues to practice law and maintains an office in the queen
tower at Concourse Office Park.
On
Judge Hilliard's LinkedIn page he posted the quote "I am not impressed by your position, title and money. I am impressed by how you treat others." This is a great testament to the Judge's character and fairness
to those in his courtroom.
Maurice's
son George says: “Dad is an old-school
guy. My dad is like a founding father in Roswell. A living legend. There are
hardly any guys like him left.” HIS ROOTS ARE STRONGBorn in Griffin
in 1934, Maurice Hilliard grew up in his maternal grandparents’ home with his
mother and two younger brothers from the time he was born until the first
grade. His father — Maurice H. Hilliard Sr. — served during his son’s earliest
years as an infantryman in World War II and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
When he returned home, he took a job selling insurance for Metropolitan Life in
Atlanta. And so the Hilliards moved north from Griffin to Atlanta, where
Maurice proved a gifted student from his first days in school. He graduated from
Bass High School in 1952, then Mercer University and Atlanta Law School. It was no accident that Maurice chose law. In the years that
followed his return from WWII, his father had returned to school and become a
lawyer. Maurice revered his father and followed his example dutifully in life.
It was at his father’s recommendation that Maurice sat for the bar after just
one year of law school and passed on the first try. Atlanta Law School sent the
first year student a diploma, and he never went back. And reverence
for his father is why, after Maurice was named the first municipal court judge
in Roswell, he developed a reputation for being hard on DUI offenses. His
father had survived Nazi Germany only to come home from war and be killed by a
drunk driver when his son was in his 20s.
What Drives Judge HilliardThe judge knows loss. In the years after losing his father,
Maurice started a family of his own. His firstborn son, Maurice H. Hilliard
III, died from a brain aneurism at 12 years old. If losing his father to a
drunk driver affected his stern demeanor in court, perhaps losing his son drove
Maurice’s empathy toward the youth who came before his bench. The losses of a
father and son had at once steeled and softened Maurice. He developed a sort of
old-school, kind-but-cranky demeanor during his years on the bench. At home,
his daughter Joanie describes him as “a big ol’ teddy bear.” In the community,
friends describe him as “acerbic and irascible.” During the course of Maurice’s 32-year tenure, Roswell
transitioned from a rural community to a major metropolitan suburb as the
population grew from less than 23,000 residents in 1980 to almost 100,000
today. In his courtroom, the joyriding shenanigans of high school football
players who might unleash the occasional fire hydrant on a peer had given way
to the methamphetamine dealers, the sex traffickers, and all other manner of
big-city crime.
“For more than 30 years, if you went before my dad,” says son
George Hilliard, “you knew you were going to get a fair shake.” Links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009619456443 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maurice-hilliard-79400285/ Note: You
may wish to read this heartbreaking story of Judge Hilliard losing his grandson
to Opioid addiction for additional background on our amazing speaker.
http://specials.myajc.com/hilliard/ |
