Pickens is remembered for fairness in the courtroom

By Robert Barron, Staff Writer

June 28, 2009 11:37 pm

— Former Garfield County District Judge Richard Pickens, 79, died Sunday after a brief illness.
Pickens served as district judge in Garfield County from 1981 to 1982. He also was presiding judge for the northwest judicial administrative district from 1982 to 1984 and 1991 to 1992.
He was a member of the court on the judiciary trial division from 1987 to 1991 and he was appointed by Govs. Henry Bellmon and David Walters to the court of tax review, serving from 1989 to 1992.
Pickens was called a judge’s judge by friend and colleague Tim Crowley.
“I knew him for 25 or 30-years. We spent a lot of time together at my place on the river. I hunted with him, practiced law in front of him. We’ve been friends forever,” Crowley said.
In all the years he knew him, Crowley said he never heard Pickens complain or show anger. Pickens was disabled in a hunting accident at age 16 and wore a prosthesis, but Crowley said he didn’t know it until he had been acquainted with Pickens for five or six years.
“All a lawyer wants is the chance to put on evidence and argue his case the best he can. We always knew he would listen and didn’t play any favorites ... he called them as he saw them,” Crowley said.
Dr. David Selby said he knew Pickens well because of a family relationship and they became good friends.
“He was just one of the most wonderful, nicest, kindest people I ever knew. I don’t know what else to say about him,” Selby said.
District Judge Ron Franklin, who succeeded Pickens when he retired, knew him as a judge.
“He was a gentleman judge. He was straightforward, honest and he made great decisions. A goal for everyone is be a judge like him. He could settle things that people didn’t think could be settled,” Franklin said.
Perkins was born June 30, 1929, in Enid to Melvin Ellsworth and Virginia Watson Pickens and died Sunday at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City.
He graduated Enid High School in 1947, then attended Phillips University.
He was manager of Long Bell Lumber Co. in Enid from 1950 to 1955, then attended Oklahoma City University Law School, where he received his LLB in 1961.
He served as assistant district attorney in Harper County from 1967 to 1969 and as associate district judge in Harper County.
Among his community activities, Pickens was a member of the board of trustees of Great Salt Plains Coun-cil for Boy Scouts of America, Enid Rotary Club, former member of Grand National Quail Hunt board of directors and a past president of Grand National Quail Club.
He also was a former member of Enid Police Civil Service Comm-ission. In 1992, he was named a distinguished law alumni by Okla-homa City Univ-ersity.
Surviving are his wife, Linda, three children, two stepchildren and six grandchildren.
The funeral is pending with Brown-Cummings Funeral Home.