Senior U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield, who served in the Eastern District of Texas, died Tuesday.
He was 82.
Chief U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas Rodney Gilstrap told The Texas Lawbook on Wednesday that Judge Heartfield will be remembered as “a man of immense integrity.”
“You could rely on whatever he told you without any hesitation. He was always there to help people — lawyers, litigants and other judges — never with any thought of how it could help him or how he stood to gain from it,” Judge Gilstrap said. “He never lost sight of the fact that the judicial system deals with and impacts real people where they live, and this guided him in all his decisions. He will be sorely missed.”
Judge Heartfield was nominated to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994. In 1995 he assumed the bench and filled the seat vacated by U.S. District Judge Robert Manley Parker. Judge Heartfield served as a chief judge in the Eastern District of Texas from 2003 until 2009, assuming senior status in January 2010, according to his biography.
Judge Heartfield was born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1940, earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s University in 1962 and graduated from law school there in 1965.
Before entering the judiciary, Judge Heartfield started his career in the law as an assistant district attorney in Jefferson County, where he worked for one year before entering private practice in Beaumont.
From 1969 to 1973 he served as the city attorney for Beaumont.
Kip Glasscock, an attorney and mediator in Beaumont, was friends with Judge Heartfield for nearly 50 years. He told The Lawbook he’ll remember Judge Heartfield as an empathetic jurist and citizen.
“He was so human that he understood, and felt the cost and the penalty, when he had to sentence somebody,” Glasscock said. “He would, with human kindness, follow the law.”
The judge took pride in his sentencing record, Glasscock recalled, noting that Judge Heartfield had a reputation for personally reading every letter that was submitted before sentencing a defendant.
Heartfield was a husband, father and grandfather. He was raised by a single mother, Glasscock said, and was shaped by the discipline he learned from Catholicism. A prolific reader, Glasscock said he and Judge Heartfield exchanged several books over the years.
As Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Texas, Glasscock said Judge Heartfield excelled at the administrative responsibilities that came along with the job title, adding magistrate judges and “filling in the gaps” elsewhere to ensure a smooth administration of justice for all.
Just a few weeks before his death, Glasscock said he saw Judge Heartfield at various local bar functions.
“Here he was a senior judge, doing this because he cared,” he said of his presence at the events. “He would look at you and talk to you and you felt listened to.”
Reflecting on Judge Heartfield’s legacy, Glasscock said his impact will be felt in the community for years to come.
“I think of a legacy as a person’s ethos — who they are that outlasts or survives them, then permeates the folks that knew them or their community,” he said. “And all of us that dealt with him and were in his sphere, and will be in the sphere of those that he influenced, are more human in our dealings with each other, and better off for having been around him.”
The death of Judge Heartfield comes two days after the death of Senior U.S. District Judge John McBryde of the Northern District of Texas, who was 91.