Jamestown Native Law Clerk to Justice Jackson Attended Roundtable
October 8, 2003
Jamestown area native C. George Niebank, Jr., a former clerk to Supreme Court
Justice Robert H. Jackson in l950 and l951, was among the Law Clerks hosted
by the Robert H. Jackson Center and Chautauqua Institution on October 8, 2003.
Three other Jackson Clerks from the l950's joined Mr. Niebank in a Clerks’
Roundtable.
Niebank was born in Niagara Falls and moved to Jamestown in l931 where he
attended Euclid Elementary School and Lincoln Junior High. He graduated from
Yale University in l947 and later from
Buffalo Law School (now the University of Buffalo School of Law). Before acting
on his plans to return to practice law in Jamestown, Neibank was offered the
opportunity to serve as a law clerk to Justice Robert H. Jackson for the October
Term l950 at the U.S. Supreme Court. Jackson asked Niebank to continue for
the October Term l951 where Niebank helped train a second Jackson clerk who
later became the Chief Justice of the United States, William H. Rehnquist.
The Chief Justice visited the Jackson Center in Jamestown on May 16 as a tribute
to Jackson.
The Navy in the Korean War next tapped Niebank when he was appointed a Commissioner
of the U.S. Court of Military Appeals. Following this service, Niebank worked
for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in Chicago, retiring after 29
years as Senior Vice President-Law of Santa Fe Industries.
The Governor of Illinois named Niebank Chairman of the Illinois Judicial Inquiry
Board for a four-year term in l976. He also served as a fifteen-year freight
railroad member of The National Arbitration Panel in Washington, DC. He was
a member of the Board of Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin.
Mr. Niebank died on July 30, 2004.