Robert Sheran

Robert Joseph Sheran (January 2, 1916 – January 25, 2012) was an American lawyer, politician, and judge. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court by Governor Wendell Anderson, serving from December 1973 to December 1981. He previously served as an associate justice on the court from January 1963 to July 1970, appointed by Governor Elmer L. Andersen. He is the only person to have been appointed to two separate tenures on the Minnesota Supreme Court by different governors.

Early life and education Sheran graduated from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis in 1932, then attended St. Thomas College in Saint Paul, receiving his B.A. in 1936. He went on to the University of Minnesota Law School, graduating with his LL.B. in 1939. Sheran resigned from the court in 1970, in part because he was unable to pay his children's college tuition on a justice's $20,000 salary. In 1973, he accepted an appointment to replace Oscar R. Knutson as chief justice by DFL Gov. Wendell Anderson, who later called Sheran his best appointment.