Jon P. Wilcox

Class of 1958: Wisconsin Supreme Court justice

The Honorable Jon P. Wilcox was a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1992-2007, appointed by Gov. Tommy G. Thompson in 1992 and elected to a 10-year term in 1997.

He was born Sept. 5, 1936, in Berlin, Wisconsin, and raised in nearby Wild Rose. At Ripon College, he majored in politics and government and participated in student government, College Days and Sigma Nu/Theta Sigma Tau, and he was commissioned through ROTC.

From 1959 to 1961, he served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, then returned to school to graduate from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1965.

Before joining the Supreme Court, Justice Wilcox practiced law in La Crosse and then in his own partnership firm Wilcox, Rudolph, Kubasta & Rathjen in Wautoma.

He served in the Wisconsin Assembly for three terms, representing the 72nd Assembly District, which includes Ripon, from 1969 to 1975; was the Circuit Court Judge in Waushara County for 13 years; was chief judge of the Sixth Judicial Administrative District from 1985 to 1992; chairman of the Wisconsin Committee of Chief Judges; and chairman of the Wisconsin Sentencing Commission from 1987 to 1992.

Other activities included being elected to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress from 1975 to 1980; serving on the Wisconsin Law Foundation Board; being a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin Media-Law Relations Committee and Bench-Bar Committee; and teaching at Wisconsin Judicial College from 1985 to 1996.

In 2007, he retired from the Supreme Court and moved to his tree and cash crop farm near Wautoma, where he enjoys hunting, fishing, and hiking.

He also continued to serve as a reserve judge and an appellate consultant. He has served as a member of the UW Carbone Cancer Center Advisory Board, was a chair of the board of Ripon College’s Center for Politics and the People and chaired the Sexual Abuse Review Board for the Madison Catholic Diocese.

He later became a member of Ripon College’s Partners in the Legacy and Friends of the Center for Politics and the People, and he received the Distinguished Alumni Citation in 1993.

“The nature of the liberal arts educated me in a very broad background of knowledge and made me become an even more avid reader and writer — the two basic prerequisites for practicing law, in my mind,” he said.