By JOHN M. JONES JR.

Editor

Retired U.S. District Judge Thomas Gray Hull, whose career included 23 years on the federal bench, died Tuesday morning at his home here after several months of sharply declining health. He was 82.

Family members said Tuesday afternoon that Judge Hull's health had severely worsened beginning in February.

On Sunday, July 20, they said, he was hospitalized overnight after suffering a seizure. Although he returned home, his condition had been grave ever since that time.

Funeral services have been scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday at Asbury United Methodist Church, of which he was an active lifelong member.

The family will receive friends from 1-4 p.m. preceding the service. Interment will follow at Greenelawn Memory Gardens.

Doughty-Stevens Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Federal, State Judgeships

In all, 30 years of Tom Hull's career were spent as a member of the state or federal judiciary, and former judicial colleagues were among many friends and associates paying tribute to him in comments to The Greeneville Sun on Tuesday.

Hull served as a Tennessee Circuit Court judge in the 20th Judicial Circuit (Greeneville, Morristown, and Rogersville) from 1972 to 1979.

In 1983 he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as sitting judge for the 10-county Northeastern Division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

Legal matters relating to the Northeastern Division are usually handled at the federal courthouse in Greeneville.

Judge Hull's career on the federal bench also included seven years as Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Tennessee, from 1984-1991.

He served as a fully-active federal district judge until Oct. 1, 2002, at which time he assumed senior status, a judicial category involving a much-reduced caseload. He retired fully in 2006.

New U.S. Courthouse

In addition to his primary judicial responsibilities, Judge Hull played a major role during the 1990s -- often behind the scenes -- in the years-long effort resulting in the construction of the James H. Quillen United States District Courthouse here.

The new courthouse, located at the corner of Irish and Depot streets, was dedicated in December 2001, in a ceremony attended by numerous judicial and governmental dignitaries at which Judge Hull presided.

The new structure replaced a handsome but much smaller and long-overcrowded U.S. courthouse dating from 1904-05 and located at the corner of West Summer and South Main streets.

Returned To Former Office

After the transfer of federal offices to the new courthouse, the fate of the historically significant 1904-05 building, where Hull held court during almost all of his federal judicial career, was uncertain and became a matter of community concern.

But in the end it was purchased from the U.S. General Services Administration by Greeneville Federal Bank, and extensively restored and renovated for use as a modern bank.

Many years earlier, as a young Greeneville attorney and entrepreneur, Hull had helped establish Greeneville Federal Savings and Loan Association. The savings and loan association later became Greeneville Federal Bank, of which Judge Hull's son, Brandon Hull, is president and CEO.

Since late 2005, the three-story, brick-and-granite former courthouse has been the Greeneville Federal Bank's headquarters and main branch.

The bank elected, however, to maintain Judge Hull's longtime judicial office on the second floor as it had been during his judgeship, and it again became his office following his full retirement from the federal bench in 2006.

Served In Legislature

A native of Greeneville, Judge Hull served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theater of operations during World War II.

Returning home after the war, he attended Tusculum College on the G.I. Bill. After receiving a doctor of jurisprudence degree in 1951 from the University of Tennessee College of Law, he returned to Greeneville, where he practiced law for 23 years.

In addition, he took an active role in local business and banking as well as in Republican Party political activities in Tennessee.

He served as a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1955 to 1965, representing Greene County, and was chief clerk of the House of Representatives in 1969-70.

From 1979 to 1981, he served as legal counsel for then-Governor Lamar Alexander, now Tennessee's senior U.S. senator.

At the time of his 80th birthday in May 2006, Judge Hull reminisced about his long and varied career.

"My very first job, at the age of 12," he recalled then, "was delivering newspapers for The Greeneville Sun, making $2.50 a week.

"From there, I have enjoyed many pursuits over the years, with the culmination of my career being the last 23 years serving the federal government and the people of the Eastern District of Tennessee."

Heavy Caseload

Judge Hull was appointed to the federal judiciary by President Ronald Reagan, at the recommendation of then-U.S. Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr.

During Hull's early tenure, he handled the entire caseload for the Eastern District of Tennessee because for a period of several months the judgeships in Knoxville and Chattanooga were vacant.

When he was appointed, Judge Hull became only the second district judge to reside in Greeneville.

Preceding him on the Greeneville federal bench was the late U.S. District Judge Charles G. Neese, the first federal judge to live in Greeneville and preside here.

Throughout the history of the Eastern District of Tennessee, federal judges from Knoxville had traveled to Greeneville twice a year to hold court.

When Judge Hull took senior judge status in 2002, the active judgeship in Greeneville became vacant.

U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer was appointed to fill the post in June 2003.

Judge Hull was instrumental in bringing about the establishment of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Greeneville in 1993.

Previously, federal bankruptcy cases in this region were heard by a bankruptcy judge who traveled to Greeneville from Knoxville to preside over the the Northeastern Division of the court.

Role In Business, Banking

Hull also took an active role, especially early in his career, in local business, banking, and economic development, as well as in civic and church activities in Greeneville and Greene County.

In addition to his role as a founder of what later became Greeneville Federal Bank, he was the largest individual stockholder in Andrew Johnson Bank.

In 1979, Hull and his brother-in-law and business partner, Carl Brandon, purchased approximately 70 percent of what was then City& County Bank of Greene County, bringing with them a management team including James W. "Bill" Hickerson.

A few years later the name of the institution was changed to Andrew Johnson Bank.

Hull and Brandon sold a substantial part of their own stock to leaders involved in the bank, Hickerson said. Later, Hull purchased Brandon's shares.

The Hull family has for years been the largest stockholder in the bank, and Hickerson said that Judge Hull himself was at his death the largest individual stockholder.

He was also a partner for many years in the Brandon-Hull Oil Company and a partner in the purchase and development of real estate until the death of his partner, Buel Brooks, in 1998.

He served as a member of the former Greene County Economic Development Board in 1982, and took an active interest over the years in encouraging local industrial job growth.

In addition, he was active in leadership roles in Asbury United Methodist Church and in a wide range of civic organizations including the United Way of Greene County, Tusculum College, the Greene County Library Board, the Greene County YMCA, and others.

In recognition of his business-related and other achievements, in April 2001 he was inducted into the Tri-Cities Business Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Greater Tri-Cities Business Alliance and Junior Achievement.

A full obituary will appear in a later issue of The Greeneville Sun.