Curtis Shake

Curtis Grover Shake (July 14, 1887 – September 11, 1978), was an American jurist, politician, author, and a member of the Indiana Senate who served as a justice of the Indiana Supreme Court from January 4, 1938, to January 7, 1945, serving as chief justice three separate times (1939, 1941, and 1944). During his career, he was the presiding civilian judge over the IG Farben trial, one of the Nuremberg trials the United States convened at Nuremberg, Germany, from 1947 to 1948 following World War II.

A native of Knox County, Indiana, Shake attended Vincennes University for two years and earned a law degree from Indiana University in 1910. He initially established a law practice in Bicknell, Indiana, but relocated his family and law practice to the county seat at Vincennes in 1916. Shake was elected as a Democrat to represent Knox and Daviess counties in the Indiana Senate in 1926, but lost his bid to become Indiana Attorney General in 1928. Shake presided as a Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court for 7 years; refusing to run for re-election in 1945. Between 1938 and 1946, Shake was also involved at the national level in mediating labor disputes, including service on six presidential emergency boards charged with settling railroad strikes.

In 1947, Shake was appointed presiding judge over the Farben trial at Nuremberg. News reporters harshly criticized the relatively light sentences imposed on those found guilty of war crimes. Years later Shake remarked that although he accepted the legitimacy of the tribunals, he thought an impartial trial from neutral countries using neutral judges would have been preferable. After his return to the United States in 1948, Shake continued to practice law in Vincennes, where he was also a longtime member of Vincennes University's board of trustees from 1923 to 1966. Shake was elected to the Indiana Academy in 1975 for his contributions to Indiana and the nation.

Early life and education Curtis Grover Shake, the son of Arminda and Daniel Shake, was born in Monroe City, Harrison Township, Knox County, Indiana, on July 14, 1887. Daniel was a farmer and music teacher; Arminda worked as a midwife. Shake completed eighth grade in Knox County's public schools. In 1903, because there were no public high schools in the area, Shake began studies at Vincennes University, where he attended classes for two years to earn a teacher's license.

Shake taught in a one-room schoolhouse for two years before deciding to pursue a law career. He moved to Vincennes, Indiana, in the spring of 1907 and began law school at Indiana University in Bloomington that fall. Shake, an avid storyteller, later recalled that while he was living in Vincennes, Jacob Gimbel, owner of a Vincennes department store that later became Gimbels in New York, offered to pay for his law studies at IU as long as he agreed to help another student in a similar manner in the future. Shake agreed to Gimbel's proposal. While living in Vincennes, Shake also held positions as city attorney, U.S. commissioner for the southern Indiana judicial district, and Knox County attorney.

In 1928 Shake became the Democratic Party's nominee for Indiana Attorney General, but lost the race. A week before the election, John Rabb Emison, a Vincennes lawyer, announced at a Republican Party gathering in Indianapolis that Shake was a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Emison asserted that Shake had joined Knox County Klan Number 75 on September 30, 1924, and produced a membership book to support the claim. Emison also proclaimed that the Klan had provided Shake with support during his campaign for the Indiana Senate in 1926, but Shake had discontinued paying his membership dues when the Klan organization became unpopular. and presided as chief justice three times (1939, 1941, and 1944). In the Warren v Indiana Telephone Company case, Shake's opinion resolved a longstanding debate about the Indiana Court of Appeals. Shake rejected the Indiana General Assembly's authority to limit the Court's powers, made the state's Court of Appeals an intermediate court, and brought Indiana's court system into alignment with court systems of the majority of other states.

Shake decided not to run for re-election because he believed that the state's voters would choose Republican candidates in the upcoming election and he wanted to avoid a defeat. At the end of his term on the bench in 1945, Shake returned to Vincennes to practice law with his son, Gilbert.

Between 1938 and 1946 Shake became involved at the national level in mediating labor disputes. He mediated an estimated 400 labor disputes as a National Mediation Board referee. Shake gained a national reputation when he served on six presidential emergency boards charged with settling railroad strikes, chairing three of these boards from 1944 to 1949. Many years later Shake remarked that he accepted the legitimacy of the tribunals, but thought an impartial tribunal from neutral countries using neutral judges would have been "preferable" in avoiding a case where "the victor" tried "the vanquished."

Later years After Shake returned to the United States from Germany in 1948, he continued to practiced law in Vincennes, Indiana, until his retirement at age eighty-eight. Shake, a devotee of Abraham Lincoln, helped to establish a memorial to Lincoln along the Illinois banks of the Wabash River near Vincennes.

Honors and tributes The 14,000 square-foot Shake Learning Resources Center, located on the Vincennes University campus, was dedicated in 1960 and named in Shake's honor. A 5,000-square-foot addition was dedicated in 1967, and a 20,000-square-foot expansion was dedicated on November 16, 1986., with another expansion in 1999 (including the addition of a second floor) and a complete renovation in 2018. In 1975 Shake was elected to the Indiana Academy, an organization honoring people with a Hoosier background who have won national recognition for their contributions to the state and the nation. He was awarded the fraternity's Founders' Award in 1962 and is one of only six men who have been named as an Honorary Grand Sage (President). Vincennes University: A Brief History 1801–1951 (1951) Vincennes, The Old Post on the Wabash: Its Place in American History (1965)