A conversation with Robert G. Dowd Jr., Missouri's longest-serving sitting judge
He retires from the Missouri Court of Appeals-Eastern District on December 31 after 41 years on the bench.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
No sitting judge in Missouri has put in more years on the bench than Bob Dowd. In 1978, just months after earning his law license at age 27, he ran in the last election ever held for low-level city judgeships and won. Being a Dowd didnât hurt; his Irish Catholic family was a major force in local Democratic politics. But if his surname had been his sole asset, he wouldâve stagnated when, the next year, a statewide reform made St. Louis courts nonpartisan. Instead, he thrived, and after a pair of appointments by governors of both parties, he landed on the Court of Appeals, Eastern District, where heâs served for a quarter century and led twice as chief judge. He steps down December 31.Â