University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law

The urban public law school with a small liberal arts feel

The Inns of UMKC Hon. Charles E. Whittaker Jr. (1901-1973)   Charles E. Whittaker Jr. was born in 1901 and left school at the age of 16 to work on the family farm. Later he desired something more and, with tutoring, he qualified for admission to the Kansas City School of Law and graduated in 1924, and was a student while Harry S Truman attended the law school. Whittaker joined a Kansas City law firm and became partner after only two years. He practiced law for 30 years and became president of the Missouri Bar Association from 1953 to 1954. In 1954 he was appointed to the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Missouri and then appointed in 1956 to the U.S. Appeals Court of the 8th Circuit. Only one year later, in 1957, he was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Dwight D. Eisenhower. He served the Supreme Court for five years and died at the age of 72 in 1973.