By Steve Thorpe
Legal News
Many people are not particularly memorable on first meeting. But Marcia Tomkiewicz says no one ever forgot meeting the late Judge John Dillon.
“He was noted for his handshake,” she says. “Especially little kids. He would grab their hand and shake it hard as he could for a long time. That was his classic trait.”
Tomkiewicz was Dillon’s court administrator in 17th District Court in Redford Township from 1987 until the judge retired in 1992. Dillon died at the age of 86 on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at his home.
“If you were to describe him with a single word, I guess I’d say ‘character.’ And at times, when it was appropriate, he could BE quite a character,” Tomkiewicz says.
“He was a very well-respected man and judge,” she adds. “All the litigants who came before him knew they were getting a fair shake. He was extremely well-liked by anyone and everyone. I never heard anyone ever say a bad word about him.”
Dillon was awarded a basketball scholarship to the University of Detroit in 1944 and, at the time, was the youngest player to ever receive one. In several games during his freshman season he led the team in scoring.
Eventually drafted into the Army in April 1945, he was being trained for the future invasion of Japan’s mainland when the war ended. He then served with occupation forces in Japan from October 1945 to March 1947.
“I tried out for and made the divisional basketball team, which afforded me the opportunity to travel all over Japan,” he said in a 1992 account.
Dillon also served for more than two years as an umpire in Japan, where baseball was rapidly catching on as a sport.
Returning to Detroit in 1947, he reentered the University of Detroit and received his law degree from the school.
He married Janet Golata, whom he had met when they were both U of D students, in 1953 and they moved to Redford Township in 1958. The marriage endured 60 years.
“They were very involved in the church and they had the right priorities,” says son Dr. John Dillon, a dentist in Dearborn. “Scripture says that the path to heaven is narrow. He stayed on that narrow path and never wavered. It was a great legacy he left his children. He loved his job, he loved his family and, at dinnertime, he was always home.”
After working as an insurance claims adjuster, Dillon started a small law practice in the community.
Active in community affairs and his church, Dillon had no thought at the time of public office. He said in 1992 that it was a conversation with a priest at St. Valentine’s parish in 1961 that started him thinking in that direction.
“(I was) appointed by Father Clair J. Berry as chairman of the building fund campaign that year and he said something that I have never forgotten,” Dillon said in 1992. “I was thanking Father Berry for choosing me as the chairman
and he said, ‘That’s okay, John. I want to see you as a judge someday.’ “
In 1963, Dillon put that suggestion into action and ran for Justice of the Peace. He won and was reelected in 1965.
In 1968, the Michigan Legislature created the District Court and Dillon ran for the bench. He was the top vote getter among seven candidates and was reelected to the bench six times.
Dillon always said he was humbled by that show of faith from his community, once saying, “I am very grateful to the people of Redford Township … I hope and trust that I have merited their confidence.”
Although Dillon preferred to keep a low profile, actions in his court made headlines on occasion.
A young man once appeared before Dillon charged with stealing a pair of shoes from a local store. The judge was so moved by the circumstances of the case that he provided the young man with shoes from his own closet and arranged temporary shelter for him.
Former Detroit Red Wing Bob Probert, often in trouble with the law during one period of his life, appeared before and was sentenced by Dillon for driving under the influence. Probert later visited Dillon and thanked him for his role in helping him straighten out his life.
In addition to his very public role as a judge, Dillon never stopped being active in community affairs. As part of his work at St. Valentine’s he visited the homes of the needy delivering food, furniture and household items in cooperation with the St. Vincent DePaul Society.
In the 1970s, Dillon co-founder OUR House, a shelter for female alcoholics, and served as the organization’s president for five years.
Dillon and his wife both had an enduring love of music and were known to travel just about everywhere — even Ireland — with his harmonica and her guitar. Many appreciative audiences enjoyed their impromptu performances.
“For their generation, music was a much bigger part of their lives,” son John says. “My mom played the guitar and ukulele and my dad played the harmonica. Between the two of them, they must’ve had 500 songs in their head. It was amazing. When I got married, they were the entertainment at my wedding reception on Mackinac Island. When (my parents) asked what the entertainment was going to be, we said, ‘Entertainment? We’ve got you guys.’”
Tomkiewicz says she was struck by a remark one of the judge’s sons, Andy Dillon, made at the wake Friday evening: “You can judge the true character of a person by the way children react to them, and children loved my father, as my father loved children.”
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