Ken Nash

Kenneth Leland Nash (July 14, 1888 – February 16, 1977) was an American baseball player, politician, and judge. He was a Major League Baseball infielder who played for two seasons. He split time as a shortstop, third baseman, and second baseman. He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives during his playing career and eventually left baseball to focus on politics and pursue a legal career. He spent 52 years as a Massachusetts District Court judge, retiring in 1970 at the age of 82.

Playing career Nash played shortstop and pitched for Weymouth High School and was captain of the 1906 team. After graduating, he went into the insurance business in Boston, but eventually returned to Weymouth for postgraduate work. He played four seasons for the Brown Bears baseball team and was the team captain in 1912, his senior season.

Nash played for Toledo Mud Hens and Waterbury Contenders in 1914. His contract was purchased by the St. Louis Cardinals that fall. However, Nash was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives that November and could not report to the Cardinals until the end of the 1914 Massachusetts legislature.

Coaching Nash coached baseball at the Milton Academy in 1918 and at Tufts University from 1921 to 1942.

Politics Nash served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1914 to 1916 and in the Massachusetts Senate from 1917 to 1918.

Judicial career Nash graduated from the Boston University School of Law was admitted to the bar in 1917. The following year he was appointed an associate justice of the East Norfolk district court by Governor Samuel W. McCall. He was appointed presiding justice by Governor Joseph B. Ely in 1933. He was appointed justice of the appellate division (South District) in 1942 and was made presiding justice in 1952. In 1963, he was appointed by Governor Endicott Peabody to become the first-ever chief justice of the district court system. In this capacity, he had a minor role in the Chappaquiddick incident. He instituted a number of changes, including a revision and recodification of the district court rules, creation of a pay-by-mail program for traffic tickets, and expansion of the six-person jury system. He retired from the bench on September 1, 1970 after a 52 year judicial career.

Later life A longtime bachelor, Nash married Herberta Stockwell, a public health nurse from Quincy City, in 1970. The judge retired to Epsom, New Hampshire, where he and Herberta lived at Highfields, off a road later renamed Nash Lane in their honor. Ken’s brother Reggie Nash, a decorated educator at Milton Academy, retired nearby in the New Rye area. Kenneth Nash died in Epsom on February 16, 1977.