Page 56 - ACTL Journal Fall24

He attended the University of Chicago Law School and graduated cum laude in 1959. He served as Law Clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black and be- gan private practice in Chicago in 1962. George spent much of his career representing regulated industries before regulatory agencies and in appellate proceedings, including appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. George served as lead outside counsel in the antitrust litigation brought by the Justice Department against the Bell Sys- tem as well as many of the private civil antitrust suits — the cases that led to the Bell System’s settlement in 1981 which separated long distance from local carrier service and reshaped the American telecommunications system.
George leaves his wife and law partner, Terry Rose Saun- ders, his three children and five grandchildren.
Hon. John Trent Sharpnack, ’83, was ninety at his death on March 25, 2024. Judge Sharp-
nack attended the University of Cincinnati, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1955. He volunteered for the draft and served in the U.S. Army for two years as an ammunition stor- age specialist. When an officer learned he was a college gradu-
ate, he ordered him to take a typing course. Thus, while in the Army, future Justice Sharpnack both learned to type and was introduced to the law as a reporter for Spe- cial Courts Martial. In 1957 Justice Sharpnack entered the University of Cincinnati College of Law and found his calling. He was a member of the editorial board and Editor-in-Chief of the Cincinnati Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He graduated third in his class. Justice Sharpnack began his legal career as a trial attorney with the Antitrust Division of the Department
of Justice. He returned to Columbus – Indiana – and joined the firm where his grandfather,
who had once served as Bartholomew Circuit Court Judge, and his father, Lew, a well-known and highly respected trial lawyer (and a Fellow of the College), had practiced. The firm traced its origins to
1824. In 1991, after twenty-seven years
in private practice, Justice Sharpnack
became a judge of the newly created Fifth Dis-
trict of the Court of Appeals of Indiana. Justice Sharpnack’s colleagues elected him to three terms as chief judge. He served in that capacity for nine years and three months, the longest term of any chief judge in the court’s history. He was returned to the court by retention elec- tions in 1994 and 2004. Upon his retirement in 2008, the Indiana Supreme Court appointed him as a senior judge, where he continued his long legal career. Justice Sharpnack is survived by his wife of sixty-three years, Hel- en, his two children, and a grandson.
James T. Sherren, ’88, age eighty-five passed away on April 26, 2024, survived by his wife, Denise Mc- Cracken Sherren, six children and step-children, and eight grandchildren. Jim served in the Army National Guard of Utah and on a missionary tour in Australia. Jim received his Bachelor of Science from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and a J.D. from the University of California Berkeley. He practiced as a public defend- er in Alameda County, and a deputy district attorney in
Ventura County. He was in private practice in Ventura for over thirty years. Early in life, Jim obtained his pilot’s li- cense and happily flew his family to Utah for holidays. He was an avid tennis player until he had his first hip replace- ment, and afterward played golf. Jim was an expert bridge player and played throughout his life. He was fascinated with events and people of the Civil War and traveled in his motor home to various war sites throughout the country.
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