On Friday, the Kentucky Supreme Court dedicated a portrait of the late Supreme Court Justice Wil Schroder that will be hanged on the second floor of the Kentucky state capitol.
Justice Schroder served the Supreme Court Sixth District, which includes Northern Kentucky, from 2007 to 2013.
Diagnosed with a brain tumor in January 2013, he retired from the bench to spend time with his family and focus on his health. He passed away on Oct. 26, 2013.
“It would be easy to think about how he left us too soon, but today I want to focus on how he spent 40 years dedicated to a career he loved,” said his son, Wil Schroder, a former state senator from Wilder, at the ceremony. “Not too many people in life have the opportunity to accomplish their dreams, and not too many get to work each day at a job that they truly love. My father did.”
After Justice Schroder’s passing, Governor Steve Beshear appointed Judge Michelle Keller, of Ft. Mitchell, to Schroder’s seat in April 2013.
Justice Schroder served as a mentor to Justice Keller, and she has a portrait of the late judicator in her office.
Keller gave remarks to the chambers on the life of Schroder, who previously served on the Kentucky Court of Appeals from 1991-2006. He was a trial judge in Kenton County District Court from 1983 to 1991.
“Northern Kentucky is in the house for Justice Wil Schroder,” Keller said.
Keller noted that each justice sits in the seat of their predecessor and talked about the influence he had on her judicial career.
“I got to have a lot of windshield time with Justice Wil Schroder,” Keller said, elaborating that when Schroder was elected to the state’s highest court in 2006, she was elected to the Court of Appeals.
“Our offices were adjacent to each other in the Kenton County Justice Center,” she said, noting that he was a great judicial mentor, but more importantly as a person and a public servant.
“One of the first things he said to me was, ‘You know you need to memorize that constitutional oath,'” Keller said.
Though the oath isn’t short, she memorized it because he told her it was one of the most important times in life for the person receiving that oath.
“It’s a great touch if you know it by heart, and he was so correct,” she said.
Schroder was in private practice in Covington from 1975 to 1983 with his brother, Robert, where he represented the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission and served as a contract attorney for the Special Fund of the Division of Workers’ Compensation and as a Kenton County public defender.
He also served as a hearing officer for the Kentucky Personnel Board and was appointed city attorney for Newport (1982 to 1983) during the onset of Newport’s early riverfront development.
His son, former state Senator Wil Schroder, served the General Assembly from 2015-2022, shared his father’s words from his swearing-in ceremony back in December of 2006.
“I hope when I complete this job, people will remember me for putting Kentucky first and not myself,” Justice Schroder said. “If they remember me for that, it will be the greatest reward that I could receive.”
The younger Schroder also shared his thoughts on the portrait.
“I think this portrait does just that, and when we visit the Capitol and see it on the walls of the second floor, we will see a painting of a Justice who truly loved the law and loved Kentucky.”Â