Retirement has always been an ugly word to me—not one that I have ever really contemplated. There were times over the last few years when thoughts of leaving the bench filtered through my mind, especially when I hit a major milestone like age 65, or 70, when I was required to request certification in order to extend my judicial life to 76. But the looming deadline was really not near enough to force me to contemplate it, so I didn’t. Occasionally, I would daydream about being transported to an event on the Senior Golf Tour in Hawaii or some such place, competing in a sudden death playoff, but those thoughts would drift away and I would then give some brief thoughts to being an arbitrator, mediator or, God forbid, a lawyer again.
There is a judicial age limit in our court system: 70 for the most part, 76 for Supreme Court justices based on certifications for successive two-year terms starting at age 70.
