Hon. Paul H. Buchanan Jr.

January 6, 1918 - November 6, 2008

Hon. Paul H. Buchanan Jr. 90, former Chief Judge of the Indiana Court of Appeals and a member of the court for 22 years, and a grandson of the founder of Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Centers, passed away on November 6, 2008. Paul H. Buchanan, Jr., was born on January 6, 1918, to Paul H., Sr., and Ruth Geiger Buchanan in Indianapolis. Judge Buchanan served on the Indiana Court of Appeals from 1971 to 1993. For nine of those years, he was Chief Judge of the Court. During his tenure on the court, he wrote more than 2,000 opinions. In 1971, his first year for a seat on the court, he was the only Republican to be elected to a statewide office his electoral margin was 476 votes. He was the first appellate judge in the United States to write opinions in a format, divided and labeled. The opinions were divided in the Case Summary, Statement of Facts, Legal Issues, and Decision. His concept was adopted across the nation and was one of the reasons Judge Buchanan was credited for being elected as chief judge of the court. He became well-known for his commitment to "brevity, clarity, and forcefulness" when it came to writing. From 1993 to 1995 Judge Buchanan served as the Senior Judge of the Indiana Trial Courts. He left the bench when he reached the mandatory age of 75, the first appellate judge in Indiana to retire by statute. In other legal matters, Buchanan served as president of the Indianapolis Bar Association in 1969; in 1970, he founded and was president of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation; he served as a lecturer at the distinguished lecturers program at the Indiana University School of Law Indianapolis; and received the Citation for Merit both from the American Bar Association and the Indiana State Bar Association. He also served on the board of managers of the Indiana State Bar Association; a member and vice-chair of the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission, a member of the board of directors for the American Judicature Society, and as a member of the House of Delegates to the American Bar Association. He also was counsel to and member of the board of directors of the Washington Park Cemetery Association and Flanner & Buchanan, Inc. Paul H. Buchanan, Jr., was educated first at School 60 in the Indianapolis public- school system, and then he attended the all-boys' private school, Park School, prior to its merger with the all-girls' school, Tudor Hall, where his sister Charlene was a student. Buchanan graduated from Park School in 1935. He attended Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, graduating with a B.A. in Political Science in 1939. After college he had a scholarship in Political Science at the University of Cincinnati. In New York City, he would sometimes lunch at the Algonquin Hotel in midtown Manhattan where the famous gathering of writers, the Algonquin Round Table, was located. When Paul's second cousin, Janet Flanner, the daughter of Frank Flanner, would visit New York from her home in Paris, she would take him as her guest to the Round Table. Janet Flanner wrote a column for The New Yorker magazine for many years, "Letter from Paris," using the pen name "Genet." He then joined the Navy, prior to the U.S. entry into World War II. He served a total of three years, both prior to and during the war, in the Pacific Theatre, finishing his service with the rank of Lieutenant (J.G.). After the war was over, he attended the University Of Denver Law School on the G.I. Bill. He had become enraptured with law while a student at Swarthmore. By this time he was married to Jane Carter, and they had one child, Lucinda. He earned his L.L.B. from Denver in 1948. Judge Buchanan and his family intended to remain in Denver where he had been offered a job at the prosecutor's office, but his mother persuaded them to return to Indianapolis. He moved to Indianapolis in 1949, and married Betty Kerbox. From 1949 to 1955, he was a sole practitioner in Indianapolis in the areas of tax law, real estate transactions, and the general practice. In 1955, he was a founding partner in the law firm of Bose Buchanan McKinney & Evans, where he was managing partner until he began serving on the state Appellate Court in 1971. The original name of the firm was Cook Bose & Buchanan. It was first located in the Consolidated Building on Pennsylvania Street. Lewis Bose, also a native of Indianapolis, was a former classmate of Buchanan at Swarthmore. He resigned from the firm in 1970 to run for the Indiana Court of Appeals. In 1969 he had begun writing "Ex Parte Line," a monthly column about lawyers and courts that appeared in Res Gestae, the monthly publication of the Indiana State Bar Association. The column contained both humor and history and was popular with the readers of the publication. Buchanan wrote the column for more than three

decades. He served as editor of the publication for a short time. He also published various articles in American Bar Association and state bar publications, including The National Law Review. Judge Buchanan believed in and successfully fought for trial judges to be selected on a merit system as opposed to being voted into office. As a result he served as the first chair of the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Municipal Court of Marion County. Judge Buchanan was a frequent guest speaker across the state, both during his political campaign and at other times, appearing often before bar associations and other organizations. He has served on many boards of directors, often as the president or chair of the board, including the Indianapolis Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees), Meridian Street United Methodist Church, Methodist Hospital, Contemporary Club of Indianapolis, Indiana State Symphony Society, Indianapolis Museum of Art (lifetime trustee), Wabash College, Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee, Columbia Club, and the Columbia Club Foundation. He received Sagamores of the Wabash from Governor Otis Bowen in 1976 and 1979 and from Governor Mitch Daniels in 2007. His many other honors include an honorary doctorate of laws from Wabash College, the recipient of the David Warner Peck Award from Wabash College for eminence in the law, the distinguished service award of the Disciplinary Commission of the Indiana Supreme Court, the extraordinary service award from the Indiana State Bar Association for "Ex Parte Line," the Award of Past Presidents of the Downtown Kiwanis Club of Indianapolis, and the Benjamin Harrison Medallion from the Columbia Club. His paternal grandfather, Charles Buchanan, went into what was then called the "undertaking business" with his brotherin-law Frank Flanner. Charles Buchanan was married to Frank's sister Anna. Judge Buchanan's father, Paul Buchanan, Sr., followed the family tradition into the funeral business. Judge Buchanan's sons, Brian and Bruce, are the fourth generation of Buchanan s to be involved in the ownership of Flanner and Buchanan. It has been a family-owned business since its founding in downtown Indianapolis in 1881. Buchanan spent his first few years at 3116 N. Pennsylvania in a home built by his parents before they moved to 5001 N. Meridian Street when he was 12 years old. He credits his mother's sense of style and beauty for the selection of furnishings and interior decoration of the family's funeral centers, beginning with the Fall Creek Mortuary that stood for many years at the corner of Fall Creek Parkway and North Meridian Street. Paul inherited his mother's love of art and, many years ago, began collecting paintings, primarily from the Hudson River School, Brown County artists, and many fine works of Asian origin. He also secured, on behalf of the Washington Park Cemetery Association, a pair of life portraits of George and Martha Washington painted by Rembrandt Peale, a member of the famous family of portrait painters. Paul Buchanan Jr. is the father of three children. His two sons, Brian K., of Carmel, and Bruce W. Buchanan, of Indianapolis and Milwaukee, his daughter, Lucinda Buchanan Pfeifer, lives in San Antonio, Texas. He is also the stepfather of Melissa Mau and Mark Flint, the children of his wife, Ruth, who survives him. He has five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. He founded the Fall Creek Foundation which has provided support over the years to many organizations and individuals. Flanner and Buchanan also has made many donations to the communities it serves. It has been a supporter of Flanner House, founded by Frank Flanner, his grandmother's brother, for whom it was named after his death. He was a co-founder, with his father, of the Buchanan Counseling Center at Methodist Hospital. The concept of constructing funeral homes on the grounds of cemeteries began with the building of the Washington Park East Funeral Center in 1989 at Washington Park East Cemetery. The cemeteries are part of the Washington Park Cemetery Association, a nonprofit organization composed of seven cemeteries. Funeral service will be 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, November 12th at the Meridian Street United Methodist Church; 5500 North Meridian St. Visitation will be from 2 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, November 11th at the Flanner and Buchanan Funeral Center - Broad Ripple. Memorial contributions may be made to the Buchanan Counseling Center c/o Methodist Hospital or a favorite charity. www.flannerbuchanan.com