Otto Richard Skopil, Jr.

Otto Richard Skopil Jr. (June 3, 1919 – October 18, 2012) was an American attorney and judge in the state of Oregon. The native Oregonian was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1979 to 1986. Previously, he was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon from 1972 to 1979, and was the chief judge of that court from 1976 to 1979. Of German ancestry, he was a veteran of World War II and received both his undergraduate education and law degree from Willamette University.

Early life Skopil was born in Portland, Oregon, on June 3, 1919. His parents, Otto Richard Skopil and Freda Martha Boetticher, were working-class German immigrants who lived in the Salem, Oregon, area. Around age one, the family returned to Salem where Otto Jr. was raised. During World War II, he was a lieutenant in the Navy

Judicial career On March 22, 1972, President Richard Nixon nominated Skopil to replace Judge Alfred Goodwin on the bench of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon.