John D. Butzner, Jr.

Who was John D. Butzner, Jr.?

John Decker Butzner, Jr. was a United States federal judge.

Butzner was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and as a child, he began to become interested in the law when he visited his uncle Billy Butzner, a lawyer. His sister, Jane Jacobs, was a leading twentieth century urbanist and reformer. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Scranton, graduating magna cum laude in 1938, and went on to the University of Virginia School of Law. While there, he served on the board of editors of the Virginia Law Review. In 1941, Butzner received his LL.B. and started practicing law at his uncle's firm of Butzner & Hicks in Fredericksburg, Virginia, but his career was interrupted by World War II the following year. From 1942 to 1945, Butzner was a staff sergeant in the United States Army Air Forces Weather Service in Alaska. With the war's end, Butzner returned to private practice in Fredericksburg. Within two years, he married his wife, Viola Peterson.

Butzner's career in private practice ended in 1958, when he became an associate judge of Virginia's 15th Judicial Circuit. He stayed in that role until 1960, when he became a judge of Virginia's 39th Judicial Circuit.