Viewing Rufus Augustine Skinner (1885-1953).

Rufus Augustine Skinner (1885-1953).

Rufus A. Skinner, a native of French Guiana, graduated the Northwestern College of Law in Minneapolis in 1915, and was admitted to the Minnesota bar the following year. He then moved with his family to Chicago, and was admitted to the Illinois bar. In 1937, the family returned to Minneapolis. It must have been difficult---he was fifty-two years and was practicing anew in the midst of the Great Depression. He found solace from "adversity and the vicissitudes of life" in his faith. He died on January 29, 1953, at age sixty-eight. In a memorial delivered before the Hennepin County Bar Association, his strength of character was recalled:

"He had a deep respect for the courts and for our system of law. He did his full part in achieving harmony in our community and without yielding principle, was so tactful and considerate, diplomatic and genuinely friendly, that he won the admiration and respect of those of other races, and in his quiet and orderly way, with his profound respect for law and with a deeply imbued sense of Christian charity, he quickened the consciences of many who might not have been impressed by other methods."

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