Two UNC School of Law alumni and former North Carolina appellate court judges were honored last summer by having their portraits hung in Superior Courtroom Number One in the Pitt County, N.C., Courthouse. The June 6 event recognized former N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert R. Browning ’66 and former N.C. Court of Appeals Judge John Baker “Jack” Lewis Jr. ’61 for their service as lawyers in Pitt County and on the bench.
The event was considered “a double bi-partisan (portrait) hanging,” according to Lewis, because he went to UNC as an undergraduate and Browning went to Duke University as an undergraduate. The two former judges are also of different political parties.
Browning, a resident of Greenville, was appointed to the state superior court and became the highest-ranking appellate judge from Pitt County as a justice on the Supreme Court. Browning is also the first Republican to have a portrait hung in the Pitt County courthouse.
“I thought the courthouse foundation might tremble, but so far so good,” Browning said after his portrait was unveiled. Lewis, a native of Farmville, practiced law with his father John B. Lewis Sr. ’30 until Governor Jim Hunt appointed him to the bench in 1982 as a special superior court judge. Governor Jim Martin then reappointed him in 1987. “It doesn’t get more bi-partisan than that,” said Lewis. Lewis was elected to the N.C. Court of Appeals in 1988. He retired from the appellate court in 2000 and completely retired from recall judicial status in the fall of 2014.
The event also focused on the similarities between the two UNC lawyers.
“Bob and I were both born in Pitt County, and we are both only children,” said Lewis. “We both have two sons, we went to the same law school and were both in the Navy. And we served in the same Naval reserve unit for nearly 20 years.”
“We have been friends and colleagues for a long time,” said Browning. “And that is one similarity that will never change.
-April 21, 2015