Gerhard Gesell

Born: June 16, 1910
Los Angeles, California

Died: February 19, 1993
Washington, D.C.

Gerhard A. Gesell

Judge, U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia
Nominated by Lyndon B. Johnson on November 29, 1967; Confirmed by the Senate on December 7, 1967, and received commission on December 12, 1967. Assumed senior status on January 22, 1993. Service terminated on February 19, 1993, due to death.

Education:
Yale University, A.B., 1932
Yale Law School, LL.B., 1935

Artist
Peter Nelson Thrasher (1960 – ) A contemporary realist in his painting, Mr. Thrasher began his first apprenticeship at age 17 when he studied with Washington, D.C. area artist Danni Dawson. He then worked with Nelson Shanks, a well-known portrait and figure painter, in a three-year apprenticeship in Pennsylvania. He returned to Washington and opened a studio in 1985 and painted the portraits of Judge Gerhard Gesell and Teamster’s Union President William J. McCarthy, among others. He has had portrait commissions from other notable officials within the United States and abroad.

Mr. Trasher began teaching in Nelson Shanks’ studio and continued at the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia. In the 1990s, he exhibited with the Art League, Gallery K, and the Jane Haslem Galleries in Washington. His work has also been exhibited in many Italian cities, in New York, and elsewhere, and they also appear in many private collections.

Mr. Thrasher works out of his Virginia studio on portrait commissions, figures, floral and still life paintings.

Courtesy of the Gesell Family

Read Judge Gesell’s Oral History

Professional Career:

Trial attorney, Securities and Exchange Commission, 1935-1940
Technical advisor to the chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission, 1940-1941
Private practice, Covington & Burling, Washington, D.C., 1941-1967
Chief Assistant Counsel, Joint Congressional Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, 1945-1947
Chairman, President`s Committee on Equal Opportunity in the Armed Forces, 1962-1964

John F. Kennedy Library Boston, Mass.

  • Papers, 1962-1966. 1 linear ft.; records of the Committee on Equal Opportunity in the Armed Forces, while Gesell was chairman, which include reports, drafts, correspondence, and background material.

Library of Congress Washington, D.C.

  • Papers, 1956-1993. 67.2 linear ft.; finding aid; restricted; collection contains correspondence, speeches, opinions, case files, legal papers, and other miscellaneous documents.

University of Wyoming American Heritage Center Laramie, Wyo.

  • Papers, 1936-1941. ca. 1 cubic ft.; finding aid; miscellaneous material compiled by Gesell while legal assistant to the Securities and Exchange Commission (1936-1941), and research on various issues affecting the insurance industry.

Library of Congress Washington, D.C.

  • Louise Bates Ames papers, 1915-1989; 20.4 linear ft.; finding aid; correspondence.
  • Arnold Gesell papers, 1870-1971; 114 linear ft.; finding aid; restricted; correspondence.

Yale University Sterling Memorial Library New Haven, Conn.

  • Jerome New Frank papers, 1918-1972; 104.25 linear ft. (218 boxes, 1 folio, 1 vol.); finding aid; restricted; correspondence.
Judges of the D.C. Circuit Courts