Thomas C. Raum ’47, retired 18th Judicial District Court of Kansas judge, was also a World War II and Korean War veteran. A business administration graduate who earned a law degree at Washburn University, Topeka, Kan., in 1949, Raum served in the U.S. Navy during WWII before returning to Wichita to practice law in the firm of Kidwell, Darrah, Ball and Morton.
He was then appointed a deputy county attorney in 1951 and was recalled to active duty in 1952. When a legal assistant at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Oakland, Calif., he received a letter of commendation praising his “keen sense of initiative, judgment and devotion to duty.”
After his second stint in the Navy, he was chief clerk to the U.S. House of Representatives Post Office Committee in Washington, D.C. before again returning to Wichita to private practice at Dresie, Jorgenson & Raum. In 1955, he was appointed judge of the Court of Common Pleas and was elected in 1957 to a four-year term. In 1961, he was appointed to the 18th Judicial District Court.
A year later, he was elected and then in 1966 re-elected. He presided over many high profile cases before his retirement in 1989: He conducted the trial of the Holiday Inn Sniper, for example.
In 1966, Judge Raum wrote: “In my 12 years on the bench, I have attempted to discharge the duties of my office with dignity and propriety to the end that the jury system and our American tradition of justice for all people may be preserved.”
Tom Raum died Sept. 4, 2016 in Wichita.
